Where does Langford rank at HW?

A case can be made for a top 10 ranking.

 

I don't know where to put him ,rather like Greb at Lhvy?atsch

 

It would be a poor case. I rate Langford in my top 2 lb for lb but just don't think his era translates well to those later, not at least in the heavies. I also don't think terribly much of McVea or Jeanette, at least not as much as some who exalt these guys to ATG status. He is a very difficult fighter to rank frankly given his era, the obstacles that were in place to his career and general shenanigans involved with fights at the time. Still I can 10 heavies easily whom he does not displace on the ATG list, probably 20. And if we are realistically talking head to head it goes much deeper.

 

Top 30.

 

One could also say Wills was pretty green around 1914-1916 when he was outpointing a much more experienced and higher rated Sam Langford. I don't think Wills hit his prime until around the 1916-1917 period...and by that point he had already beaten Sam Langford multiple times.

 

His resumé is outstanding, but you have to take into account the amount of fights he had against Wills and the number he actually won. He record is obviously very poor against Wills in that respect.

His losses to Wills don't hurt him in a P4P respect, but ranking him at heavyweight, they do. He would crack a top 25, possibly top 20.

 

Top 17-25...more likely in the 20's.

 

I think I have him at # 16

 

Yes, that's the best approach but I still don't see it getting him quite high enough.

As great as I believe Langford to be, I just don't buy the argument that these once in a millennia archetype fighters exist, wherein there is no analogous fighter at 5 foot 6, weighing at his best around 180 who is out there recently slaying giant, skilled heavyweights... or even decent sized heavies. It leaves me to surmise that the skill and size gap of the past was just not as great as it is in more recent decades, that a smaller-type fighter can just not bank on fighting chopping down lumbering oxen of the division. Ergo, Wills, who I believe was quite skilled, defeated Langford handily time and again, though admittedly Langford was a bit used up towards the end.