Tonna was a physical beast.Certainly stronger than Monzon, shame he lacked mentally and was a typical big punching frontrunner. He's a good call for being among the strongest non-champs alongside Roldan, Sibson etc Gene Fullmer, Herol Graham and Hopkins among the best at manipulating other fighters balance and stance through a mixture of strength and dirty tactics. Tiger for strongest that there is lots of film easily available of.
That was one of the many reasons why Monzon was the greatest middleweight champ IMO....he fought smart,,,sure he would back up...he didn't make every moment of every fight a strength contest...he was,as McGrain puts it...functionally strong...it wasn't too hard tomake Ali back up either....but he was functionally strong as well. Guys like Monzon, Ali and a few others knew when to lay back...when to back up..it was what made them great ring generals and added to their superiority. Dick Tiger, on the other hand, was just straight-up, outright strong...and it played well for his fighting style.
Tonna was very strong. I dont think he was in the same range as Tiger but he was up there. He used to manhandle light-heavyweights in the amateurs.
Not sure about LaMotta. To me it seems like most of is mass is in is ead. Never looked like e was carved out of stone and proportioned like Tier.
You dont have to look like you were carved from marble to be strong. The strongest man Ive ever met looked like Jabba the Hut but he could literally bend railroad spikes with his bare hands and twist nails into pretzels using just the fingers of one hand.
Of course. I would never say aler was stroner tan LaMotta, owever, Tier as te credentials. LaMotta seemed a bit top eavy to me and not as proportioned. Bot stron and bot strateically similar (wear down te opponent) but wit different styles (LaMotta a more slippery brawler, Tier more of a pressin counter puncer).
What does the thread,"physically strongest middleweight" really imply ? Ablity to lift the most weight ? Ability to soak up the hardest blows and remain on your feet ? Ability to throw the most punches for the most rounds ? Ability to outrough much heavier men time after time ? So how can we truly judge the question of who truly was the strongest middleweight champion ??? We CAN'T.... P.S. Overt muscles and physique alone can't answer this question, but a middleweight like Harry Greb ,outroughed, outmuscled, out volumed, lightheavyweight and heavyweights on a WEEKLY basis in his career HAD to have unusual strength for a middle weight fighter I should think.
