hardest hitting middleweight ever in any era....

Sugar Ray Robinson

 

Rubin Carter maybe deserves a mention

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgDxA78CJho[/ame]

 

Aside from Florentino Fernandez ,I can't think of a top middle Carter stopped

 

Sam Langford needs a mention here

 

Mugabi

 

Rocky Graziano & Nigel Benn both packed a wallop

 

Good lists

some other contenders: sammy Nesmith, Don Lee, Tony Sibson, Lindell Holmes, Gratien Tonna, Nigel Benn, Eddie Gregory

 

Sam dominated at middleweight. He moved up because no one would fight him ... he weighted 156 when he fought Jack Johnson and Johnson said no one ever hit him harder ..

 

I said earlier Hearns and Monzon i think i was pritty harsh on RJJ not to include him. Benn and Hagler have to be up there too.

 

"I don't want to fight that little smoke"
---Jack Johnson(regarding Langford)

I was looking at the LA Examiner report on the Papke-Ketchel fight the other week. Papke drew the color line that same day, specifically naming Langford as the man he wouldn't fight. That should tell you how large Sam's shadow loomed over the division. Sam was interviewed as well.

 

As much as I like Monzon, he really doesn't make the short list. He did not really have any 1 punch or 1 round KO's of top flight opponents I can think of. And no, the Benvenuti KO was the result of a sustained beating.

Also, regarding Jackson, Graham aside he was at his best, and hardest punching a weight below, if memory serves.

Also, can we lay to rest that Fitz Ko'ing Ed Dunkhorst signifies anything at all. Dunkhorst was as mediocre as they come and had no victories of note. Big f'n deal.
I think Nigel Benn needs more thought in this regard.

 

Why the **** do you people keep bringing up Monzon? :---(

 

That first Benvenuti KO was certainly a proper one-punch stoppage, even though Benvenuti had been rocked shortly before.

It wasn't an accumulation \exhaustion stoppage like say Foster Finnegan or McCallum Watson.

 

I'd like to post that poem from Clay's book about the middleweights ducking Langford but can't find it .. it is perfect for this thread ..

 

I would like to know the source for this. He wasn't hit solidly by Fitz, but did say that Ruby Robert missed a punch that, "hummed past like a swarm of bees." If Lil' Artha' did indeed say Langford hit harder than Choynski, who blew out Jack in under three, that would be highly noteworthy indeed. Johnson vehemently protested to Nat Fleischer, as related in "50 Years at Ringside," that Langford did not give him a difficult fight. (Fleischer deliberately repeated this rumor in jest to yank Johnson's chain, until Jack pleaded with him to cease and desist.)

Prior to 1908, Sam was under 160 pounds. Veteran WW Young Peter Jackson went the limit five out of six times. Five times, LW Jack Blackburn got to the final bell. Legendary lightweight Dave Holly took him the route no less than four times. MW Larry Temple went the limit four times, and came within 40 seconds of doing it a fifth time.

Now, I haven't mentioned yet that Sam actually lost some of these bouts where the final bell was heard. An examination of his record does not suggest overpowering force prior to growing out of 160. His true reign of terror began after Young Peter Jackson stopped him in five immediately after the Johnson loss. However, the knockouts of Wills, McVea, Gunboat, Jim Johnson and Jeanette did not come until well after he had fully grown into the heavyweight ranks. Those lightweights, welterweights and middleweights, who had gone the distance with him so many times while he weighed under 160 would have had considerably greater difficulty reaching the final bell with a 200 pound Langford.