How Many Of Your Top 10 Hvy Champs Does Langford Beat?

I would also argue for a top 20 ranking for these men.

 

Jeffries got his tactics completely wrong in the first fight. Instead of pressing the fight he tried to outbox Corbett and got his ears boxed off.

Around the 15th round, his manager says something to the effect of: "Your blowing it son. You are not going to outbox this guy. You have to pressure him, and you have ten rounds left to turn this around".

Jeffries sees to have taken control around the 15th and eventualy got the stoppage. What I am saying is that Jeffries should probably have done a lot better.

You are right about Corbetts dandy image being misleading. He was a verry tough and ruthless operator and resourceful with it.

 

Sam knocked out bigger opponents than Foreman. George would have a fatal deficit in speed and stamina. If young Foreman didn't flatten you within five rounds, he wasn't likely to. Peak Langford was never dropped, and he showed with Wills that he carried one punch power through 20 rounds. An old and fat Qawi, an inch shorter than Sam with an inch less of reach actually stole a few rounds from the lightest Foreman of George's second career. Prime Langford had far more experience than Foreman and Qawi ever accumulated together. Miserable fight for George, who would get ravaged when the championship rounds arrived.

In his heavyweight prime, Sam was around 200 pounds, and built more solidly than sub 200 pounders Whithurst, Leotis, Machen, Joiner and Marshall. Watch Langford hammer Jeannette to the deck repeatedly in Paris again. Liston never heard the bell for the round Sam did that in. Sonny wouldn't be taking singular bombs when Langford unloaded like that, he'd be on the receiving end of a barrage. Sam too smart, too fast, and with too much staying power for Liston to get him out early. Then the deep waters rise up to engulf him.

Frazier was a faster starter than stereotyped, but if Sam catches him like Foreman did in Jamaica, Ramos, Stander or JQ in their first bout, or Ali late in the second round of their middle bout, Joe might not have a chance to wake up before it gets stopped. If there's one heavyweight in division history who could successfully trade hooks inside with Smoke for an extended period, it's Langford. Although Frazier really didn't like tangling with shorter opponents, he did it with some regularity, and was pretty good at it. However, Sam would be a really weird experience for him, maybe too strange for him to adapt to.

Langford wasn't only shorter than Marciano (who actually did look down at the 5'9" Freddie Beshore), but he had a reach advantage of five inches on the Rock. Again, a really weird situation for Marciano, and not one I'm sure he could have adapted to before facial damage accrued would affect the eventual outcome.

Corbett does outbox him. He did it to an opponent Sam wanted nothing to do with. Janitor just expressed that he was a tough and ruthless operator, and I'm considering the version who drew over 61 rounds with Jackson, who withstood so many body shots that the imprints of Peter's gloves were on his torso. A bridge too far for Langford.

Holmes and Ali had the effective use of height and reach necessary to outbox him. Ditto Tunney.

Louis would be a war. I'm really not comfortable projecting a winner at first glance. Sam could move, and had the power to defend himself with when exchanges did occur. Also, Joe hated to be crowded, and we saw what Langford did to Jeannette in close with those ripping hooks. Sam could do many of the things which made Louis miserable.

Dempsey would also be a war, and of course Jack prudently wanted nothing to do with Langford during his rise to contention. They might both get carried out on stretchers when this was over. Sam wasn't one of those big slow guys Dempsey described as easy meat. However, Jack had his own deadly hook and uppercut, and Langford would have to kiss the floor to get under that fire.

 

Based on seeing one fight of his i would say he beats them all. With modern nutrition, a daily multi vitamin and some boxercise he would very likely be 220lb of solid muscle. Basically a little ****ing tank.

 

Agreed duodenum. I see him as being able to dismantle and outsmart the sluggers and some of the crackable boxers, 50/50 against some of the boxers who can punch, and the best movers defeating him.

 

But Langford really seemed to have his problems with smaller fighters rather than the bigger punches. Corbett wasnt really small per se, but he moved around and was very hard to hit like a middleweight or lightweight. If you look at Langfords record, he wasnt that physically imposing in his fights agains the little guys. To be honest, i have always struggled to understand why. Of course it is highly possible that when he was small himself, he simply hadnt developed fully as a fighter and he improved as his weight improved, and i would think this is the case to a large extent. But, on the other side of the coin, i think Langford's style might have worked best against the bigger slower fighters, where he could take advantage of his massive punch and set himself to sit down on his punches. Against Corbett, he couldnt do that (theoretically at least). I therefore see Langford having trouble actually landing clean and it is difficult to imagine him outpointing Corbett. I think that Corbett might be the better chance. Of course if Langford is capable of landing cleanly, but i dont think he was as clever as Fitz, and i dont think he would pull it off as often.

I do agree, that as the fight starts to go longer than 20 rounds Langfords prospects do increase.

 

Sorry for the blonde moment!

Their primes darn near overlaped. A green Langford seems to have been reluctant to take on Jeffries, and I will guess at his reasons. He probably feared that Jeffries durability would nulify his finishing ability, while Jeffries would have been strong enough to force him around the ring. A bad stylistic match up.

In a longer fight, I suspect that Jeffries probably would have worn him down after taking a lot of punishment, but it might be that Langfords firepower is too much even for the boilermaker.

 

I think in Moyle's book there's something about "the big boys being nice and slow" or something to that extent.

The Pacquiao-Langford-McLarnin-Fitzsimmons conundrum.

 

Unfortunately, we don't have Sam's 20 round draw with Walcott on film, but he is supposed to have conclusively outboxed Joe with his height, reach, speed, skills and mobility. I'd just discussed how Frazier and Marciano might have found it too strange to be able to adapt to an opponent so much shorter than they, but Langford actually did succeed in comparable situations to this earlier in his career. Reportedly was very comfortable as the tall stylist with the 5'1" ATG WW Barbados Joe, making full use of his seven inch reach and five inch height advantage in that particular situation. He got the best of all shapes, sizes and styles of ATG opponents in all possible ways it could be done. A real case can be made that Sam was the most versatile of the ATGs.

And that the 6'1" Corbett could go 23 rounds with Jeff and nearly win after entering at a weight of 188 tells me he would definitely be a heavyweight in the 12 round era. (And if the championship distance was restored, you'd see the top weights of the top heavyweights dip precipitiously, even more so if 20 and 25 rounders were brought back and made standard.)

Thoughtful and informed commentary.

Not as clever as Fitz? This can spur some quality discussion. Fitz was brilliant at feigning distress to create openings. As for Sam, Wills was moving in for the kill. Next thing Harry knew, he was looking up at the lights. Sam was plenty cagey, and the Tar Baby nickname is suggestive of that when applied to the context of the times.

As far as Langford's prospects improving after 20 rounds, again I have to caution against considering the dissipated and later aging version of Corbett who succumbed to Fitz and Jeff. As a rising contender, he took out Choynski (a tremendous puncher) in 27 rounds, had the draw with Jackson when weighing 185, then trained himself down to 178 for the 21st round knockout with Sullivan. We know Sam could do 20 rounds and remain lethal throughout, but the fact is he never had the opportunity to further prove his endurance beyond 20 rounds, aside from the scheduled 45 rounder with Flynn where he only used enough time as necessary to demonstrate himself for the movie going public.