Henry Armstrong nuthugging thread - why he was the greatest fighter of all time

Why? Lets hear it.....surely not based on "Are you trying to be Manassa in terms of style?"

 

It's "weirdo" I would have thought.....

 

no 'i' before 'e' except after 'c'

 

Just been watching the fustigation he dealt out to poor Barney Ross and the way he threw Garcia around on the inside like a rag doll. Even if Ross was past it and Garcia was a natural welter rather than a natural middle, it still beggars belief. To think that he had to put weight on unnaturally to reach the welter limit as well........

 

Testing people out...........really. :good

 

I hadn't realized Montanez had gotten into the HOF. That was a highly praised win for Armstrong at the time, and he reportedly was the first fighter ever to drop Montanez.


You've basically said everything that I would say on this subject. I'd only add that the win over Ross may well be the single greatest feat in boxing history - which alone would make Armstrong a candidate for the all time #1 spot. Consider that he jumped straight up from FW all the way to WW and completely battered a dominant, long-reigning HOF champion. That's an unprecedented feat. Even the almighty Ray Robinson fell short in his efforts to win a unified title in a third major weight class, and that's after having spent some time at MW in between anyway.

Also massively impressive is that Armstrong was able to go up a 4th major division and outslug arguably its top-rated fighter, a partial titleholder, and one of the hardest hitting MWs of that or any time.

 

Based on what? When did Duran prove he could beat someone that could match his strength and skill on the inside? What did Duran say after Leonard whacked him with a few good shots to the body in their rematch?

 

I wonder if Juan Zurita will ever be inducted into the IBHOF. Maybe not but he looks quite good on film.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr_c4FaGrsg[/ame]


Ceferino Garcia should be.

 

I'd say Garcia was a natural jr. middle. He looked much stronger and more comfortable with the extra pounds on him than he had at 147. In fact, he looked like a hulking mountain of muscle at around 155 pounds. I'd say he was probably one of the strongest and most powerful jr. middles ever.

 

True, I suppose. I never really gave it much thought. He was a brute at middleweight, looking at the jobs he did on Apostoli and Marshall etc. It's one of the reasons why I think that Armstrong might well have been able to manhandle Duran, though I'm not sure many would agree with me on that one. They could be right, seeing as how Duran handled himself against Barkley.

I'd like to think that Hank beats Duran though.

 

Duran did seem to get outstrenghted and forced to fight on the backfoot to an extent by Hector Thompson.

Albeit that was a young Duran still bringing his style together and the Aussie was immensely strong himself.

 

I've never seen the Thompson fight in all honesty. When I think of Duran's infighting ability, it's generally the Palomino fight that springs to mind. Physical domination of a cast iron fighter there. Still, the Armstrong of the Garcia fight looked just as powerful, if not much more so.

How do you think Armstrong would have fared against a prime Ike Williams? What a war that would have been.

 

Funny you mentioned it: I've just watched the Williams-Jack fight . I don't think I've ever seen another lightweight throw close range uppercuts like that. Williams was about as great an offensive machine as there ever was. Every punch perfectly executed with murder in his heart at mid to close range. Jack was a hard ****er too, though not quite in Armstrong's class. I agree with you that Ike would have had as good a chance as anyone at beating Armstrong owing to the stylistic factor.

Good post though. Chime in as often as you want mate, you know twice as much as I do .