these two losses happened close to each other and in both fights sam was stopped. (1923) Was sam ever decisively (T)ko'd? excluding the last harry wills fight where sam said that was the only time he was ever knocked spark out its hard to belive jokers like clem johnson stopping sam, or his previous opponents stopping him, who he previously stopped
I think that by that time he had taken so many blows to the head that stopping him didnt prove verry much. Bearcat Wright was a decent fighter and Langford was probably overmatched at this stage of his career.
I think we must factor in his deteriorating eyesight as well. Langford is truly a tragic figure in boxing lore imo, it is nice to see him getting his just deserts on this forum.He is arguably the best p4p fighter ever.
He was so consumed by the sport that he could never leave it even when he was taking beatings for ever diminishing returns. Most fighters are a person who happens to box. Langford was a boxer who also happened to be a man. I am a bit of an amateur mountaineer myself and you see people get consumed by the sport to the extent that it is bound to kill them. Atempting to sumit Everest is literaly like playing Russian roulette. One in six people who atempt it die. On Anapurna 40% of people who atempt to sumit it die. That is prety much like a coin toss.
That would frighten the **** out of me,just watching documentaries on it terrifies me, though I am fascinated by accounts of guys like Mallory etc . The book and programme, "Touching the Void "were first class imo, But that is as near as I want to get to the subject. People like Ranulph Fiennes are politely called "driven", I think they are glorious maniacs.
Spot on. The first two expeditiond that atempted to climb the north face of the Eiga got completely anihilated. No survivors. The third expedition that sumited it took casualties. I only do things that I am fairly certain to walk away from alive, but every climber suffers from, the fear/disco leg/disco body. That is when you just freeze up on a rock face and your legs shake visibly and you think "what the fu** am I doing here.
I've found primary sources on these fights horrible to come by. Basically, apart from th NYT report on the Johnson fight i've seen nothing.
For a man who fought as long as he did ,and as honourably, there is remarkably little in print about Langford ,yet people like Hector Camacho made the cover of the ring .Pisses me off.
