The hell I feared no man. There was one man I wouldnt fight because I knew he would flatten me. I was afraid of Sam Langford. -- Jack Dempsey When Sam hit you in the body, youd kind of look around half expecting to see his glove sticking out of your back. When he hit you on the chin, you didnt think at all until they brought you back to life. When he knocked me out in New Orleans, I thought Id been Killed. -- Harry Wills The greatest hitter of them all, bar none, was Sam Langford. -- Harry Wills Langford was the greatest fighter who ever lived. Sam would have been champion any time Johnson had given him a fight. And Johnson knew it better than anybody. Man! How that baby could hit. Nobody else could hit like that. Well, maybe Joe Louis could, but dont forgot that Sam only weighed about 160 pounds. Louis was about 195.-- Joe Jeannette Id pick him (Langford) to knock out Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey and Rocky Marciano. When he was not under wraps, he was a ring marvel. -- Frank Erne
McVey- Regarding Langford vs. Fulton, I was going to post a few facts regarding it but I will simply quote your own post from 4/13/2008 on the "Fred Fulton vs. Sam Langford" thread, post #5: "By this time Langford was 34 and losing allmost as many as he won,his vision was going and he was wearing out slowly but surely ,still a good win for Fulton who later won a dec from Sam"
The poster Quarry has dismissed these quotes many times in both the "How good was Dempsey's title reign?" thread and the "Langfor or Pep, who has the better resume?" thread.
He has also claimed Clay Moyle to be a biased relative of Langford and has said Sam was lucky it was only a 6 round fight with Ketchel as he was in the verge of being stopped.
Interesting. Does he reckon that Harry Wills, Frank Erne, Joe Jeannette and Gunboat Smith were biased relatives of Langford's too?
Personally, I don't believe that Dempsey was truly "afraid" of Langford. But I have no doubt that he had a ton of respect for what Sam could do in the ring and knew that he was dangerous no matter who he was in there with.
not so much erne and i dont see any gunboat smith quotes so im not sure the point of mentioning him. wills fought langford on many occasions, had many hard fought battles and possibly wills most noteable opponet. by talking smak on langford he only ruins his own record, clearly bias. same sitiuation for jeannette, clearly bias. I think tunney would take this fight with supior foot work and speed as well i belive his chin would have no problem lasting the distance.
Agreed. Im sure he also meant the Langford of old, and not the blind Langford who was still fighting while Jack was champion.
I was just reading a quote about Langford from Smith earlier and he said something to the effect of "an unleashed Sam Langford is the greatest fighter I ever saw". or something like that. I'll have to find the quote.
The langford up until the miske and fulton fights was truly great. It's largely rumoured he carried the first fight so he could secure a rematch which he usually won by knockout. After his detached retina(a career ending injury usually) he was very useful still in the ring beating everyone he fought bar the two aforementioned. After suffering his second detached retina he still knocked out flowers. A blind old langford was able to knockout a man who would go onto twice defeat greb. Legendary stuff. At 175 I just can't see anyone defeating a motivated in shape langford. Especially one that fought between johnson and miske (12 years I believe?)