Eddie Futch on Holman Williams

I wonder how Joe Louis would have turned out if he had stuck with Williams and not gone with Blackburn.

 

Holman Williams is one of those fighters I must make my business to get to know better. I feel his legacy deserves to be remembered.

Unfortunately, he's one of a number of forgotten fighters that had a champion's abilities, but a hobo's luck. I speak under correction, but I don't think he ever won a title, yet he was good enough to beat Charley Burley, and you didn't beat Burley unless you were bloody good.

 

The reason Williams was a weak hitter wasn't to do with a lack of strength or technique, but brittle hands. By all accounts, he excelled in the art of uppercutting - where he could hit an opponent at such an angle where his metacarpals were not aligned in the same way and weren't bashing together.

 

I rate Williams very highly he has some huge wins but as mentioned before he wasn't a puncher although in his early career he did finish a lot of fights. Like many old fighters he fought so many times, that injuries never truly healed which is a bad thing especially if you have brittle hands. His list of wins is up there with the best I believe he went 3-3 with Burley. The only fighter who he seemed to struggle with was Cocoa Kid he deserves to be in the hall of fame.

His story is tragic a great fighter who was never given a title shot despite always being highly ranked in his prime. I believe he would have out boxed Zale he had a very good chin only ever finished 3 times in almost 200 fights. Also his last days were very tragic he never got the big fight so he wasn't well off once he retired he began to train fighters and lived in the gym one day the owner of the gym got into an altercation with someone they retaliated by burning the gym down he was asleep and died.

He deserves a lot more recognition then what he gets he is hardly ever mentioned on these top 50 or 100 p4p yet his wins are better then 90% of the fighters who do get mentioned.

 

McGrain.
Judging by his record and his amazing level of competition, you'd have to regard him very highly amongst the welters/middles...Anyone who had the skillset to engage Burley and other members of 'The Row' with his success, has to be considered a great fighter. Was there quite a bit of info on him in Rosenfeld's book? I need to learn more about him...and Burley too, for that matter!

 

Holman had a hand in the development of Joe Louis -and Eddie Futch. He was kind and good-natured... and a player in the Black Murderer's Row. Manassa is on the money with the brittle hands theory. Holman had some good power early on and was stopping guys right and left, but his hands gave out, much like Burley's did. I have to wonder how many other fighters -black fighters particularly, had this problem during the golden age, and how much of it is due to their poverty and deficient nutrition.

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Much is made of great fighters ducking guys like Burley, Williams, Jack Chase, Eddie Booker, et al., but many forget that back then many fighters were serving in WW II... and if a champion went overseas, like Tony Zale, their titles were frozen out of respect. I am not so sure that Zale would not have given Holman a shot in 42 or 43.

I love the Man of Steel... but my money would have went on Holman.