After Mikey Walker vacated the MW title in 1929 there was a split between the NBA and the NYSAC titles and no clearly dominant fighter until Tony Zale cleared up the mess. How does Marvin Hagler do against all the guys who held the title between Walker and Zale? Some talented fighter (Steele) and also some more or less forgotten champs (Thil). Who does Marvin destruct and destroy and who may upset the bald one? 1932-01-25 1932-06-11 Gorilla Jones NBA 1932-06-11 1932-07-04 Marcel Thil NBA 1933-01-13 1933-08-09 Ben Jeby NYSAC 1933-08-09 1933-10-30 Lou Brouillard NYSAC 1933-10-30 1934-09-11 Vince Dundee World 1934-09-11 1935-09-19 Teddy Yarosz World 1935-09-19 1936-07-11 Eddie Babe Risko World 1936-07-11 1938-07-26 Freddie Steele World 1938-07-26 1938-11-01 Al Hostak NBA 1938-11-01 1939-06-27 Solly Krieger NBA 1938-11-18 1939-10-02 Fred Apostoli NYSAC 1939-10-02 1940-05-23 Ceferino Garcia NYSAC 1940-05-23 1941-05-09 Ken Overlin NYSAC 1941-05-09 1941-10-31 Billy Soose NYSAC
Until we can find away to see any of those boxers fight , and not just on opinions of writers that may have been long dead before Hagler was born, I take Hagler to Destruct and Destroy them all..... Including Walker.
Take a look at Steele here - This content is protected And here - This content is protected I'm not saying we should pick him to beat Hagler on the basis of this (and other) footage, but he looks pretty good to me.
Good stuff..... But is enough to really get a real feel for Steele? Maybe I should've wrote enough film , not just a few minutes of highlights to have a real opinion on them. Highlights can turn Howard Davis Jr. Into Ray Robinson....... But I can see from the film you introduced he moved his head well though he stood tall, and that's rare. But his opponent wasn't that great, so it's hard to tell.
A "feel" for him, when combined with the other footage of him available on YouTube? Yes, I think so. Obviously not as firm an impression as modern fights, whose whole careers are available in full HD colour. Vince Dundee was a fine MW. He may have been past his absolute best by the time of the Steele fight, but in the 12-months prior to it he had beaten Babe Risko and Paul Pirrone, whilst he took the wonderful Teddy Yarosz to an SD. Even 2 years later, he extended the great Billy Conn the full 10 in a close fight. Yet, as you could see, Steele destroyed him in 3 x very one-sided rounds. Steele only lost 2 of his opening 133 x fights. I rank him #8 all time at MW, Hagler #3. Those rankings are purely based on what they achieved in their own eras, discounting H2H in cross era fantasy fights, which, for some of the reasons you've alluded to, involves too many unknown variables for me and isn't always comparing like for like.
How are we supposed to pick without knowing the conditions of the fight? As we learned from the Leonard fight: * Marvin can only fight well if the ring is just the right size … not too big, not too small. * Marvin really can’t be expected to perform with 10-ounce gloves. Only eights. So if these guys fought in an era where the gloves were too small, or if someone negotiated for tens … Marvin cannot be held to whatever result that may yield. * Marvin just isn’t into 12-round fights. He needs to be able to give away the first four rounds or so to perform at his best. I doubt he’d be up for 20 rounds either. It has to be 15 … just right (even though he hadn’t fought a scheduled 15-rounder for 2 1/2 years when he fought Leonard). Marvin only fights his best under perfect conditions suited specifically to his likes and constitution. He also requires M&Ms in his dressing room with all the green ones removed, green tea extracted by hand from Camellia sinensis leaves picked by virgins and arena temperature set precisely at 71.5 degrees.
I totally forgot I posted this thread! Thanks for the interesting info as always I will check out the video on Steele.
I agree it is tricky if no footage, to be honest I was being lazy and never checked before I posted! However it maybe possible looking at their records? After all Greb is highly rated and we have no footage. Also Walker fought Heavyweights so I doubt he would be a cake walk for Hagler. I am hoping some fan of this era maybe able to bisect their records and let me know who was legit
JOCK McAVOY is in that mix, he sparked out Risko and before that even, he was in the States in hope of MW Title opportunities, winning 2 contest, one of which was against the L-HW cum HW, Al McCoy... Then of course he did the 15 Round dance with the ATG John Henry Lewis. Yes, McAvoy is in that list.
After the watching the videos I feel Steele looks like a very quick and hard punching fighter. However I think the style of the day with low hands and the wide winging punches would be exploited by Marvin who would chop him down. But it would be highly entertaining until then!