Dick Tiger vs Randy Turpin

Man I think Tiger is matched in all his aces here. Turpin could make some noise in this.

 

I think it's a messy fight. Tiger decisions him though.

 

I would favour Tiger not least because he is a 2 weight champ and fringe top 10 in MW division, his era was stacked full of good hard tenacious battlers, who had come up the hard way, Giardiello and Fullmer being just 2 of many, fighters who earned their spurs fighting often and in other peoples back yards, thinking Turpins opponents ( in general ) were not hewn from the same cloth as Tigers, and as you say his time at the top was short indeed, his fall from grace tragic and sad, so I also see a win for Tiger, but don't share the " without much doubt " my feeling is it would have been hard and gruelling, with Tiger weathering some rocky moments, but ultimately coming out the winner.
stay safe guys.

 

really hard to pick but I think tiger eventually finds his mark in the late rounds for a stoppage win

 

agree and you'll note I did say it would be a "Good Fight"... but yes, more likely than not a Tiger victory. for the record, the Turpin that boxed a beautiful controlled and crafty fight against C ockell, was probably the best Turpin. Yes a tragic story, yet not altogether rare, but sad all the same.

 

I think this can be a very winnable fight for Turpin

 

Turpin simply beat SRR cause SRR underestimated him and cause he was tired from his exhibition tour in Europe.

My money's on Tiger out-boxing Turpin

 

He gave a fully in shape and extremely motivated SRR a very tough fight in the return in his backyard.

 

The 64 Day Hero documentary goes into a lot of detail about Turpin's personal problems after the Olson fight but it doesn't explain what was bothering him in the build-up.

Maybe he was missing his fiancee but I get the impression that a lot of Turpin's issues were more complex and related to his own demons.

Despite it being a golden opportunity to regain the world title, Turpin didn't train properly for the Olson fight.

He went for an early KO probably because he knew he didn't have the stamina to put on a good performance over 15 rounds.
He didn't get the KO and the tide started to turn against him in the fourth round.

 

of course he trained, he just made the same mistakes of a lot of young men catipluted into notoriety make, attention, BROADS readily available, want to use his time for banging rather than serious austerity for the Fight(s), he was mistreated, used, fed gals & attention and lapped it up like so many others before and since... the only thing Special about Turpin was that he was/is a British Hope, Success, repeat, repeat, regurgitate endlessly.

thats what we do in Britain, because of such few ultimate success at the Top, 1966 and all, repeat, repeat., especially in the heavier weights in Boxing.

Turpin was a Top fighter, among hundreds, his story though unfortunate is not rare, neither is his career.

 

He'd hardly done any sparring whilst in the States and none before leaving.
A story was leaked to the press that Randy was training at night away from the press.He wasn't.
You can't prepare for a fight without sparring although Nigel Benn didn't do much.
Randy wanted to pull out during the fight and go home but his corner wouldn't let him.
His gamble on going for a quick KO nearly worked but once the bell for the 4th round rang, he knew he was in for a long night.
His hands were banged up as well, which isn't an excuse, just a fact.

 

Randy almost definitely had had enough of boxing by 1953 and would have happily walked away from it if there was an alternative.
He didn't like the set up and like thousands of other boxers throughout history to the present day, he got flea fu**ed by his promoter.
And just like all these other boxers he was free with his money, too free.
It's telling that although he made buttons as a wrestler and even though most of the bouts were fixed, he enjoyed it and found the wrestlers to be a good crowd.

 

Where did you hear that? I'd be interested to know because I've read a couple of books about Turpin but I don't recall anything being said in either of them about problems with his hands.

Although I do vaguely recall reading somewhere else about Turpin sometimes dislocating his knuckles due to his fierce hitting but I think that was more of a general thing rather than something that happened before the Olson fight.

Also, the 64 Day Hero documentary mentioned Arthur Batty's weight training programme that consisted of 12 exercises.

Do you know what the 12 exercises were?

 

I've seen photos of Turpin after the fight with his knuckles banged up.
I think he has his hands on one knee and you can see the knuckles.
I don't know what the 12 exercises were apart from the clean and jerk.
Jackie Turpin said the exercises didn't work for him but were perfect for his baby brother.
As I've mentioned before, one of my trainers who was the same age as the licker saw him doing an exhibition in Liverpool and tossing the weights round like they were shirt buttons

 

I think to this day Turpin is still the strongest ever middleweight champion.

I remember reading somewhere (I can’t remember which book it was) Sugar Ray Robinson saying that he never fought a man stronger in the clinches than Turpin and that he was so strong he could break both your arms.

In the book, Fighters: The Lived and Sad Deaths of Freddie Mills and Randolph Turpin, a wrestler who knew Turpin towards the end of his life said that Turpin had tremendous sinew strength and that if he held his arm out parallel to the ground, you could neither push it up nor pull it down.

He was incredibly strong.