Young Stribling shows defensive prowess, accuracy and speed in training footage

There's video of Dempsey doing similar

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Young Stribling
224 13 14
129 KOs 1 KOs

1931-07-03 : Max Schmeling 189 lbs beat Young Stribling 186½ lbs by TKO at 2:46 in round 15 of 15

• Location: Municipal Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
• Referee: George Blake

• World Heavyweight Championship (1st defense by Schmeling)
• Photo #2

Notes

• Schmeling won the vacant World Heavyweight Championship on June 12, 1930, when Jack Sharkey was disqualified in the fourth round for hitting Schmeling below the belt. On January 7, 1931, the New York State Athletic Commission stripped Schmeling of the title after his manager, Joe Jacobs, refused to enter into an agreement to defend the title in a rematch against Sharkey. The National Boxing Association, however, continued recognize Schmeling as champion.
• Stribling was a slight betting favorite until the afternoon of the fight, when the odds shifted to Schmeling.
• Ticket prices ranged from $3 to $25.
• An estimated crowd of 35,000, with gate receipts of $349,000, saw the fight.
• Schmeling received 40 percent of the receipts and Stribling received 12½ percent.
• Referee George Blake was paid $2,500 to officiate the bout.
• Schmeling scored the only knockdown of the fight when he floored Stribling with right late in the 15th round.
• The Associated Press reported:

Stribling praised Schmeling for fighting fairly and cleanly. It was a right-hand blow that landed just above the left eye in the eleventh round that really started him to defeat, Stribling said. After that punch landed, Stribling knew he was beaten. The young Georgian said it was an injustice to him to have the fight stopped by Referee George Blake with only 14 seconds to go. He argued that he had been knocked down only once and might have continued until the finish. Stribling, however, was in no condition to weather the storm, for he was groggy and reeling, and another savage blow to the chin might have resulted seriously.

• This was the only knockout loss Stribling suffered in a career that consisted of more than 280 professional fights.
• The bout was named 1931 Fight of the Year by The Ring Magazine.
  
  
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Stribling and his younger brother Herbert were taught all of their boxing tricks by their mother Lillie Stribling, who was quite an athlete herself. My trainer, who’s in his 70’s now was family friends with the Striblings and received boxing instruction from Lillie in the mid 50’s and said she was more strict than Sandy Saddler, who he would later train under in the 60’s.

Also, crowds found fighters sparring with midgets very amusing in those days, so most of the shows and camps tended to have at least one midget handy.

Here is Jack Pettifer, who was a heavyweight in those days sparring with a midget.

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He looks sharp

 

Truly underrated fighter. Crazy to see that many knockouts out of a guy who was criticized for being too nice. Imagine if he'd had a killer instinct!

 

Where was the bobbing and weaving? Are you talking about the moment when he bends at the waist and bows down so that his head is by his knees, facing the floor, and ducks under the bag?

 

He just needs to work on his motorcycle skills. They can be a real killer.

 

According to one source, Young Stribling was a good basketball player. He also had good boxing skills, but was a rather boring fighter and wasn't that good of a puncher despite having a large number of knockouts. Despite fighting a fair number of top boxers during his career., Strib also faced tremendous amount of soft opposition, which certainly padded his knockout totals.

- Chuck Johnston

 

He actually looks pretty good here compared to other fighters from that era. It's a shame that the bag he was working on was so light, as it was hard to gauge his punching ability with the bag swinging around like that.

But honestly, colour me impressed.

 

Yeah he looked fairly slick in that limited footage, especially for a heavyweight of that era. The fact he only had one late-round stoppage loss in 300 fights is incredible, he must have had very good defense and stamina.

 

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detai...-chest-flexes-his-arms-news-footage/579396672