Dunno. He looks great on film. I realize that a good deal of those 30 losses came later on, but his contemporaries figured him out to some degree. Johnson, Tiger and lesser lights. So, I think he would do about the same today. Thanks for the posting the fight with Johnson, tho. Good watch.
Henry fought some of the best TV fighters back when there were a bunch of almost equally talented guys fighting each other. On Hank's best night, he might win a "WBO" grade title, then lose it soon after.
Looking at some of the trash heaps of talent in numerous divisions that currently exist, some solely to manipulate modern protected fighters into holding meaningless belts, I somehow imagine that the iron chinned and talented Henry Hank could indeed be a damn star if he were to come along and be groomed properly circa 2018. That's just my opinion however.
Ditto. You've got to love Hank. He came to fight and gave fans their moneys worth. Id love to find film of his fight with Giardello.
Hank was a lot more durable than Augustus. You can easily argue that Hank actually has a legitimately great, all time great chin. Incredible durability in and well after the prime years of his career. Only stopped, on his feet, after 9 rounds and even then on a referee stoppage by maybe the greatest LHW puncher of all time, when Hank was a fighter that fought barely above the welterweight limit numerous times early in his career. You couldn't ask for a sterner fighter. I also don't think Augustus was even remotely as well conditioned as Hank. Henry was a fighting machine in his prime and showed himself capable of doing 15 rounds and showed a great engine countless times. I recall Augustus looking badly conditioned more than once. Augustus was legitimately beaten up in what should have been his prime by up and coming guys of the time like Leonard Dorin, who ultimately ended up proving to be a B level fighter. Augustus hardly won a round in that contest and if I'm remembering correctly, was actually fairly battered throughout the fight. Not a good look. Augustus also lost lopsidedly to the likes of a blown up, 35 year old John John Molina and certainly didn't do much against fighters who never lit the world on fire, period, like the never mentioned Almazbek Raiymkulov. Badly outclassed in that match as well. I like Augustus, but he's not on the level of someone like Henry Hank. He simply didn't compete in an even remotely comparable talent pool to what Hank routinely did 10 hard rounds against.
The lightheavy division is deep in talent, tho a lot of it has not been tested yet. Kova, Stevenson, Alvarez, Gvozdyk, Beterbiev, Bivol, Browne... I imagine Hank could hang on with some of these guys but probably get beat by most. Some pretty moments on film, and the snipets of "skills" that some aficianados drool over are not really important. Results matter. Results rule the day. It's not figure skating or gymnastics.
What does citing one of the handful of strong divisions in boxing, at the same time admitting it's almost entirely untested, have to do with this era certainly being weaker than the past in almost every division? Irregardless that LHW was certainly not Hank's best fighting weight. Do you believe that fighters the level of Harold Johnson, Joey Giardello, Dick Tiger and Bob Foster are still occupying and common boxing? Because that's the kind of talent pool Hank had to navigate through.
I don't quite get your response. Yeah, I believe that Kova is pretty damn great. He was only beaten by Ward, a guy he pretty obviously beat the first time around IMO. Beterbiev and Bivol have good chances of being great. But Hank was beaten by plenty of guys below that or Stevenson's or Alvarez's level. John McCormack anyone? Mauro Mina? Eddie Cotton was a helluva ref but not a great fighter. Ernest Burford? And I'm not even getting into his earlier career or his late career slide.
Augustus had a shotty record, but Floyd called him his toughest opponent. Results matter for sure. But you can be a serious threat even if you have that kind of resume. Which I think you agree with.
Totally agree. He looks like a hard night for anyone. It's almost shocking the Tiger whitewashed him on the scorecards. I'm going to watch that fight tonight!
Eddie Cotton was a very good fighter and an entirely different person from the ref. In fact I think Eddie Cotton the fighter was a better fighter than Eddie Cotton the ref was a ref.
He reached the pinnacle of the sport as a ref, not so much as a fighter. Tho his bout with Torres is a scorcher.