Now then, now then. Armstrong's controversial draw with Garcia is arguably what leads most people to give Robinson the edge over his near contemporary. The stuff that true greatness is made of. For an ex-featherwegithto come within a hair's breadth of beating the MW champion...so what about Paquiao, the ex-Fly? His next fight is against cheating ******* Antonio Margarito. Not-very-good Margarito is a very limited fighter, and not as good as Garcia, but, as PP is so fond of pointing out, weight-making has changed and in all likelyhood, Margacheato will be weighing about as much as Garcia did for his fight with Armstrong when he faces Pac. All of this is nearly totally irrelevant, except to say that it can't really be argued that putting Pac into this division is silly; it's being done, for all intents and purposes. So how about it? Could Pac re-create the greatest acheivment Armstrong never recieved credit for, and beat the then middleweight-champ? 10 rounds, 8 ounce gloves, Mickey Vann is the referee. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swymNKyzZ0E[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEESjnclQdw[/ame]
Here's the MW fight between Armstrong and Garcia BTW: [yt]c5m5dk-Agck[/yt] [yt]b1SDWJmb-x8[/yt] [yt]k4x5rRQ-UKU[/yt]
Garcia wasn't a big middleweight by any means. A welter really. I think he'd beat Pacquiao though. His career had its ups and downs but during his best run he really had developed into an impressive fighter. Apostoli may have suddenly hit a slump, but for. Garcia to stop him is still impressive. Pacquiao is a real fighter, but back in the times of Garcia, Apostoli and Armstrong there were several like him.
Armstrong fought Garcia at WW and beat him. The fight at MW was a definite Armstrong win I've always thought. Not sure the credibility of Bert Sugar but he claims that a draw was set to have happened and Armstrong basically needed a KO. I thought Armstrong won so the theory doesn't sound as silly as it might if I knew all the information. I think Pac could beat Garcia but I have doubts about him beating and doing some Armstrong's other achievements. Like Unforgiven said, Garcia was a rather small MW. Interesting enough the size different was nearly the same for both fights for Armstrong. I think Garcia would try to overwhelm and rely on his physicality to beat Pac and I don't think that's the way to beat him.
Garcia was a legit junior MW. He filled out nicely when he moved up from 147 to around 155 pounds, and that seems to have been reflected with his big wins over Apostoli and Lloyd Marshall. He's one of the most hulking and muscular jr. MWs I've ever seen. Shocking that Armstrong was able to outmuscle him and push him around at that weight.
Armstrong didn't really outmuscle people shouder to shoulder...he got underneath them and leveraged them. He used his legs to push...he wasn't stronger than those big guys...and he always pushed at an angle either the right or left side, but usually crowded an opponent's left side to take away that arm, then make the opponent have to punch across the body with the right hand...Armstrong didn't generally take opponents head on. there was a science to it...and Armstrong was hell on wheels.
Your copy is as vivid as in a movie..Great..I saw Henry Armstrong get whipped by Ray Robinson MSG,in 1943.Robby eased up on the past peak Armstrong, who was his idol. But on your film i noticed that Armstrong in close {he was always in close], used his shoulders, head, forearms on ceferino Garcia...I never noticed this before,but have heard about his tactics...He met his match in roughness when Fritzie Zivic, cut him up badly and stopped Henry in 12 rounds in 1941..Fritzie was dirtier than Henry, and knew all the tricks of the ring...Boxing is all about styles and Zivic had Armstrong's number.
you think garcia is just too big for pac? I would also like to add that armstrong clearly won the fight between he and garcia at middleweight. I would also like to know why if it was a title fight, it was only scheduled for 10 rounds?