Stanley Ketchel - where is he in the pantheon of great middleweights?

We are talking about a guy who drew with Sam Langford, and who is widely acknowledged to have been one of the most concussive punchers in history.

Is he in the very top tier of middleweight greats like Monzon and Robinson?

 

Not quite but very close he is at my tier 3 together with Walker equaling a ranking between 6 and 7.

 

Top 5 for his power,which he carried all through a fight.

 

He has to rank highly, given the fact that he was only 23 when murdered and would of probably progressived even further and been pretty active, he could of probably had upwards of 140 fights, with more great victories forth coming.

He already has wins over the likes of Billy Papke, 3 times, and Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, 2 times, add to obviously the World Middleweight title, and a courageous effort against a prime Jack Johnson, when he lasted until the 12th when outweighed by 30lbs.

Great power aswell, so he ranks pretty well head-to-head. Therefore, taking into account all this, I would place him certainly top 8, perhaps top 5/6.

 

A case could certainly be made for having him up with Monzon and Robinson.

Ketchel was murdered at the age of 23 with a lot of unfinished business. He is for that reason the Salvador Sanchez figure of the 1900s.

Despite his early demise his resume is solid.

Top middleweights he beat include:

Joe Thomas

Mike Twin Sullivan

Jack Twin Sullivan

Billy Papke

Hugo Kelly

On top of that he has two wins over the top light heavyweight of the day Philadelphia Jack O'Brien. O'Brien held Jack Johnson to a draw between the two fights.

A nice finishing touch is his destruction of Dan Porky Flyn who was a prety servicable heavyweight contender.

 

He also has a draw against Frank Klaus who would go on to win the mw title later on.

 

Might be worth knowing a bit more about that one. It almost certainly would have resulted in a newspaper decision win for one fighter.

 

I can't see how anyone would have him outside of their top 15, middleweight wise.

 

Stanley Ketchel was a POWERFUL puncher and ranks in my
top 5 middleweight list for sure!!!

I think that Ketchel would have destroyed Graziano, Lamotta,
Emile Griffith, and Gene Fullmer, to name a few.



Grebfan9
www.firstroundboxing.com

 

Certainly a top 10 at the weight IMO all-time.

BTW, I think LaMotta would have put a pretty bad beating on Ketchel.

He's one of the few who could probably stand up to his punch, and the skill level is vast IMO.

 

LaMotta would have been broken down and KTFO by the 10th round. Jake didn't have the power to keep Ketchel off or away. His crouch was tailor-made for the unorthodox hook-uppercuts Ketchel was fond of throwing, and Ketchel had much quicker hands than LaMotta.

Sorry, I like the Bull, but this is a virtual walkover for Ketchel.

 

Stanley Ketchel sits comfortably in the pantheon of top 10 middleweights in history with guys like Fullmer, Cerdan and Hagler but theres only 1 true king of the Middleweights and thats Carlos Monzon

 

I agree - Stanley Ketchel hit like a heavyweight. LaMotta was tough
but Ketchel feasted on fighters with Jake's walkin style.


Grebfan9
www.firstroundboxing.com

 

I have him at three, behind Greb and Monzon, ahead of Hagler and Robinson. At his best, no 160 pounder of the era could stand up to him. He lost the middlweight title on a cheap shot, came back and recovered it, dominating a fellow ATG middleweight in the process. He smashed the best contenders and KO'd durable fighters with ease. He KO'd a great light-heavy in Jack O' Brien twice. He gave H2H No. 1 light-heavyweight of all time, Sam Langford, a rough 6 round fight. He knocked down Johnson and KO'd Porky Flynn quicker than anyone other than Jack Dempsey and the 6'4" 220 pound Fred Fulton. He also had some of the most freakish physical assets the boxing world has ever seen, including inhuman stamina, durablity and punching power.

 

Wait, Fullmer's a top ten ATG middleweight?

Since when?