"WOW folks i've just read some great history of a great fighter of STANLEY KETCHEL of Grand Rapids Michigan.STANLEY KETCHEL was born in 1886 on september 14th of Polish heritage.He left home at the age of 12 and started his career in saloon fights and worked his way up to middleweight division.He weighed just less than 160lbs but he still managed to fight Heavyweights first ever champ "JACK JOHNSON" for the heavyweight title This content is protected (mad!) Here is some really really really old and fantasic footage of the fight.By the way this fight was over 20rounds This content is protected . You really need to read up on KETCHEL to really understand how f***ing hard he was!!!!!He was hard as their come,BELIEVE ME!!! He's AMAZING.His life was very short due to him being murdered.He was only 24year old and he had a great record of 49 K.Os from 64 fight career. P.S watch closley at this video to see Jack Johnson pick out KETCHEL two front teeth out of his glove This content is protected This content is protected REALLY HARD MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ketchel is the small white fella. Im amazed that this fight is on film.It's got to be the oldest fight footage ever!!!Great stuff!!!!!! // This content is protected This content is protected Close You need to upgrade your Flash Player
I've saw this on youtube before. Ketchel must be one of the hardest hitters in history pound-for-pound. What an ending though!
There are older fights than this. Corbett Fitz, Gans Nelson I, Tommy Burns vs many of his title fights, and of couse the Sharkey Jeff fight.
Stankey Ketchel was a once-in-a-hundred years type fighter. From Inernational Hall of Fame Boxing Historian Tracy G. Callis: "The “Michigan Assassin” faced four hall of famers during his career, some of history’s best middleweights, light heavyweights, and heavyweights included among them. Nat Fleischer, the late ring historian and founding editor of The Ring magazine, considered Stanley to be the greatest middleweight in history." His KO% was astounding and considering he often fought men that outweighted him by as much as 30 pounds or more-it's almost unbelievable. I'd say Ketchel did just fine fighting a prime Johnson that outweighted him by 40 pounds and was two inches taller as this article says Ketchel was within a two count of winning that fight. All this and he did it before the age of 25-oh what could have been. http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news/bearden2006.php http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/ketchel.htm http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/callis-rankings.htm
They were supposedly good friends after the fight. Stanley said something to the effect that Jack was like a black version of himself.
I know these guys are legends of the ring but is anyone really impressed by this? I mean, imagine 50 years from now you showing your grandchildren this footage and then following it up with a Roy Jones highlight real for comparison
