Two guys who I feel are underrated MWs in terms of Greatness and H2H, great slug fest imo. Who you got?
Jake was a heart crusher who took a lickin and kept on tickin. He would wear Fred to the body and win the fight.
From watching the second Apostoli bout, Steele, although injured and near the end, seemed to struggle stylewise with (real) skilled crouching fighters. Lamotta fits that bill perfectly, and would trouble the fine moving and hard hitting Steele throughout with his crouching jab, high workrate, body punching and stalking, due to Steele's upright classical posture and movement. That said, Steele would also set up and time some beautiful side stepping counters on Jake. These are both guys were you land maybe one or two of a combo. Would probably start with a battle of the lead left, and the guy who establishes momentum would earn a close, hard fought decision. LaMotta would win one in a series IMO. That said, I favour Steele absolute peak for peak. War!
This is pretty much how I see it, I think all bouts that they would've fought would be close though. Great post by the way I have a feeling this thread will become one after spending far too much time reading through the the Hagler-LaMotta and Walker-Steele threads.
I think LaMotta would do well crowding Steele, his upright stance would see him struggle with crouching and head movement, as @roughdiamond said. I like Jake to bring pressure with his educated left and starts to grind out Steele's body. Steele would be using his own, better imo, left to keep Jake somewhat at bay and would be setting up short combos and landing more frequently imo. Steele has a better understanding of distance and how to manage it, so I think that Freddie finds the most comfortable range to land on Jake first and takes most of the early rounds, LaMotta would still be bringing heat and make the rounds close and start to effect Steele with body shots, but I don't think he'd be winning the rounds early on. Jake's pressure and workrate would start to slow Steele down imo and as Steele slowed down he wouldn't be able to spin and ward Jake off as effectively. I can see these rounds being electric, Steele taking big punchers, throwing and landing big punches and both fighters boxing and brawling with equal effectiveness. Would be a nightmare for a Judge. As it reaches 10ish I think that Jake would be pouring pressure on at this point, landing lots but also taking a lot. Jake would be certainly taking the rounds at this point, he'd be throwing and landing more than Steele. As it goes to the final third, I think Steele would come back into the fight and start to work like the first few rounds, just not as effective. For me the main thing that I think would turn it to Steele's favour is the tighter short punching, it would allow him to do better fighting how Jake wants to fight than LaMotta would do fighting at long range with Steele. Steele's feet are also a factor, for me they are more sound than Jake's and would be another reason I think he wins a razor thin decision. He'd be able to turn and retreat quicker than Jake could pressure and also outmanoeuvre LaMotta when in the centre of the ring. In short it would an unbelievable scrap where both guys could win or lose, in a 3 fight series it could go nine different ways. Can't see a KO tho. Steele SD15
LaMotta MD15, sportswriters are split. LaMotta just has too much pressure for Steele at the end of the day. If they fought 5 times Steele would probably win 2
Jake by a savage 13th round stoppage. Too much Jake with I believe a far better atttack would be in Steele's face all day. He would breath right onto Jacob. LaMotta =the truth.
Jake doesn't have the power to dent prime Steele who made it 120 fights before getting stopped. Jake could also be somewhat lackluster against movers. That said, if they fought 5 times, Lamotta would still take 2. Peak for peak, I'm picking Steele but not without hesitation.
I really think Lamotta is the better boxer here. Much smoother than the stiff Steele for sure. Steele may have been tough enough to last 15 but my money is on Lamotta
