Big Bill Tate Vs Kid Norfolk fight footage

If I didn't saw the title of the vid I would say that is the Bill Tate vs. The Devil fight

Tate performad bad, but Norfolk was impressive. Head movement, feints, footwork, speed, aggressivness. Old time fighters are bad my ass.

 

Well, I didn't know he had much of a reputation other than as a permanent sparring partner to Jack Dempsey.
The lack of further footage means Tate remains an enigma in how he performed.

Frankly, I've seen worse, or at least almost as bad from fighters with much greater reputation. I've seen Muhammad Ali performances that are way more out of synch relative to his reputation.

 

Well, if those are your positions on the enigma of Big Bill Tate, I'm interested in how you square them with one another.

On one hand Tate deserves a rep as a real fighter because he beat a decent version of Langford.
On the other his inept showing against Norfolk should not be assumed to be below-par for him.

So, what d'you think ?

 

Being a foot shorter than your opponent is a serious disadvantage, but in his defense Langford did knock out Tate immediately after.

Tate looks half-decent in sparring against Dempsey, but seems to be lacking any ideas on how to deal with Norfolk here, and Norfolk was a light heavyweight. At 6'6, 240 pounds you would have thought he could have made a fight out of it.

 

Agree, we can only really comment strongly on what we see.
Regardless of any other result or reputation looks to me as if Tate made no effort to beat Norfolk. He knew how to take a beating though, as you would expect from a man who made a living touring with Dempsey as a main sparring partner.

I read that Langford probably tanked to Fulton.

 

Langford went to great lengths to ensure that the fight looked legitimate then.

 

I've read a couple of newspaper articles, contemporary to the time or thereabouts, that suggest Langford was called in to purposely make Fulton look good after Fred had had a few disappointing showings. Paid to lose, Langford took a beating for a few rounds then quit. I'll dig up one of those articles if I can find it again on the internet.
Even states that there's was talk prior to the fight that Sam would do exactly what he did.

All reports agree that Langford quit.

Yes, tanking can be very hazardous to one's health.

 

This is one of those articles that casts doubts on Fulton's stoppage of Langford :

http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers...401,5352812&dq=fred+fulton+sam+langford&hl=en


Frank Force, Fulton's former manager, who split with him not long before the Langford match, is attributed with declaring that Langford would turn up, put on a token exhibition, and quit after a few rounds.
Sour grapes maybe. But insider knowledge too maybe.

 

Your opinion on Langford dropped much then, McGrain?

 

Not even given that he lost to the supposed worst fighter you've ever seen? How could such a thing happen?