Ketchel vs. LaMotta

Ketchel would win this one post-Papke II I think.

 

I don't mean to be rude, but I find the idea of LaMotta stopping Ketchel a little silly.

Ketchel was stopped once in his class, by one of the middlwweight divisions greatest punchers, Papke, who was allowed to tee off power punches pretty much at will for 12 rounds. Ketchel absorbed what may be the most horrific beating in the history of boxing from one of it's most deadly power punchers and fought in one of the deepest division in MW history but LaMotta is going to stop him?

Even outside his division he was stopped only once, by a HW.

 

Not always, no. The first fight was a near cake walk and the third wasn't far behind.

 

No. But Ketchel may have hit Papke before the start of the first fight.

 

No bother - just my opinion mind, a lot of very good historian types will tell you otherwise.

 

Billy’s ring walk was almost Zen-like, “a broad smile on his features, in excellent humour with himself and all the world…he was almost childlike in his supreme confidence,” (The LA Herald). It is also important to note that Papke, “immediately walked over and shook hands with the champion.” Much has been written about the first round of this fight, and more about the supposed “sucker-punch” Papke is said to have landed at any point between the referee’s instructions and the first bell. For the most part, this is gross exaggeration. Papke did decline Ketchel’s second handshake, ring-centre, after Jim Jeffries had waved them in, but only because this was almost exactly what Ketchel had done in the first fight. Indeed, a Daily Arizona sub-header remarked that “Papke, Remembering Former Experience, Refuses To Shake Hands At Call Of Time And Sails Into Champion Like A Thunrderbolt,” As well as noting that the “sucker punch” that Papke claimed decided the first fight was landed in near exact circumstances, it is also important to stress that the punch was landed after time was called. The punch was not illegal and nor was it a matter for debate in the press reports the following day, although it did become a minor issue later that week, around the time negotiations for a third fight began in earnest. According to The Evening World, Papke had even announced before the fight that he would not be shaking hands before the bell, specifically because Ketchel had taken advantage of him in their first fight. The same article states that Papke invited Ketchel to “come on and fight” before attacking, giving Ketchel every chance to withdraw his extended hand.

Whatever the specifics, Papke took a vicious initiative and remained in control throughout perhaps the most devastating beating in all of ring history.