Thoughts on Gene Fullmer?

Who else could he have fought?....those guys were the ones that were at the top.

 

But Basilio was a pretty solid favorite and was picked by most sportswriters to beat him the first time. And Fullmer won that fight with boxing/movement as much as anything else.

 

:goodi agree.a cruder version of jake lamotta.the bull had a better chin and was a better boxer

 

Fullmer was and is still underrated. He is mistakenly thought of as simply "crude and clumsy"..a "brute"...Fullmer was actually more clever than he is given credit for being, as proven by his two tko victories over Carmine Basilio, where he showed he had a "plan B" style of fighting. Awkward and yet effective, it was more than enough to do what no one else was able to do..and was to twice stop Basilio. Obviously that plan B style was only effective against an opponent who, like himself was aggressive and a "straight ahead" type slugger...Fullmer could very well have persevered over Basilio by meeting him head on as well, but instead he showed that he wasn't exactly one-dimensioinal. A latter day parallel to this would be the "boxing" style of retreating, countering and jabbing..a kind of rudimentary footwork and "style" shown by Oscar Bonavena against George Chuvalo in 1966..a bout where Oscar won by makiing it somewhat easier for him than had he met Chuvalo toe to toe for a caveman style war. Fullmer made the most of his lack of talent and fought very well within his limitations, and at the same time was able to go against his grain for a change in such bouts against guys like Basilio and even Tiger in that 15 round draw of theirs.

 

Anytime i think of Fullmer i think the same thing...tough

 

Fullmer was great, love watching the guy in action employing his mauling and batter you senseless with punches from all angles anyway I can style of fighting. The man could box rather well too when the occasion called for it, he wasn`t a one trick pony at all. I can only imagine what a number he would do on more modern middles like Pavlik and Taylor to name two, those guys would have been brutalized by Gene in his heyday.

 

RB, Pavlik would be brutalized physically and mentally by Fullmer...what Fullmer would have done to Taylor wouldn't have been pretty...Gene would have stopped both of them.

 

I think Fullmer had more versatility than LaMotta.

 

If Gene Fullmer was transported into the 1990's and came away with wins over Nunn, McCallum, Toney, Hopkins and Roy Jones I wouldn't bat an eye lid in terms of surprise.

 

lamotta would outbox fullmer all night long

 

Fullmer himself said his physical strength was the deciding factor against Basilio.

 

but was found wanting against richard ihetu

 

I can see why you would make the Bonavena /Chuvalo parallel, but there is a difference.both Bonavena , and Chuvalo were natural heavyweights ,at 203 ,and 215 respectively.Basilio was really a blown up welter fighting a big middle weight.

 

He could have fought Giardello again but wouldn't,and he never fought Lausse again, I don't now the reason for that.
Some of the rated middle weights Fullmer never fought ,while he was rated himself.

Mims
Hank
Giambra
Humez
Armstrong
Joseph
Vaughn
Rivers
Calhoun
Savage
Towne
Hernandez
Papp
Scholz

Don't misunderstand me ,Fullmer has a good resume,I am just putting his wins over SRR and Basilio in perspective, and hopefully Fullmer's standing too.

 

artie towne beat a couple of british middles didn't he ??i thought fullmer fought neal rivers.