Educate me on Gene Fullmer

An awkward, powerful bull is how I would describe his style. Good Chin and apart from power had good physical strength. A mauler in a sense. He had enough of a Ring IQ to change his style a little as his career went on. The Basillio fights I believe Gene showed some finesse and he was able to win that way. That is the sign of a good fighter. I don't believe he was a great fighter. IMO that word gets used too much. Very good and never an easy out.

 

One of the dirtiest fighters Ive ever seen and for a HOFer he had a lot of decisions and calls go his way that shouldnt have. If you were fighting him out west you could pretty much guarantee you were going to lose unless you killed him and even then you might get DQ'd.

 

Extraordinary toughness and treating the rules as a mild suggestion carried him a long way. The fight with Peret is posted up, and it's tough to watch knowing what Kid's fate was 2 and a half months later. The beating was bad enough, I wouldn't be surprised if that played a role in his untimely demise.

If I had to come up with a modern comp, I'd go with a Orlando Salido and Glen Johnson hybrid. Give that guy homefield advantage (like Siri had against Loma), and that's not a fun 12/15 rounds. To his credit, Gene would travel (and picked up some of his biggest wins in NY), but as Klompton alluded to, he was an easier out in Chicago or NY than Salt Lake City or Vegas.

 

Tough...strong...mauling. Beat Peret...Ray Robinson...Basilio....etc. Beat SRR for the Middleweight title in Jan.1957...lost it to SRR in May 1957. Won vacant NBA title in 1959...lost it to Dick Tiger in 1962. Made Marciano look like Willie Pep....

 

He was a tough, strong, ...oh he was strong, awkward, mauling, highly effective fighter. My dad and uncle,...both boxing fans in the 50's, had a low opinion in general of him, referring to him as "crude",....but hell, they were comparing him to the great SRR, and other greats that they were fond of like Joey Giardello...so of course, he would appear "crude" compared to them. But in my estimation, there were many positives regarding Fullmer. As noted already, he had the capacity to develop another style, a "Plan B" sort of style,...that contrasted with his arms crossed, straight ahead cave man approach that he was identified with. He used this Plan B style most effectively vs Basilio, and he deserves credit for this, as he could have just met the Onion Farmer head to head, as was expected, and just clubbed away, but instead, he back pedaled, fought on the back foot, effectively covered up and actually outboxed Basilio, using his tremendous strength advantage and proved that he had an extra dimension to his armory. He also used this style in outpointing the ever dangerous Florentino Fernandez, also in that fight, he displayed another positive, that being great courage,...a champion's courage in fending off Fernandez in that last round when his right elbow, being fractured by his opponent, made him have to jab, jab, jab,....surviving the round through the pain and winning a split decision, something else he deserves credit for.
Gene Fullmer was a tough, tough, tough customer, a tremendously strong, awkward and determined bull of a fighter, and deserves all the respect in the world. He would have, in my opinion, been way too strong and resourceful for so many of the most modern middleweight champions like Pavlik, Taylor, Martinez, and Cotto, and would have given all the best champions a very difficult evening, and would have even beaten some of them....go ahead and argue with me if you want.

 

one of a few guys who was competant enuff that plan b was to be technical but plan a was pretty much straight up attack.

could throw a decent counter when he wanted/vs the right opposition

 

Very good post...it's about the way I see it.

 

Yeah Rocky, but give him credit for his "Plan B" style.

 

Fullmer was a very strong guy. Brutal tank kind of guy. Extremely effective. He was so big for the weight, giant head and he would wrap his left arm across himself as a guard and bowl over a clubbing overhand right right over the top. One writer said it looked like a guy throwing beer bottles from behind a bar in a saloon. And that's just what it looked like. It worked! Yes he was rough with his head and a lot of things went his way in a close fight. But he was good enough to make any fight close. He would have been a fool not to fight so tough. He was handled by a millionaire Merv Jenson who also handled Rex Layne and his brothers. From what I know he was handled well and did well out of boxing. The Fulmer brothers had a happy ending out of boxing. There is not many of those.

 

His resume is very underrated too. He beat Ralph "Tiger" Jones, Spider Webb, Joe Miceli, Rocky Castellani, Paul Pender, Gil Turner, Carmen Basilio, Florentino Fernandez and Benny "Kid" Paret. Drew with a young Tiger when he was past his prime and even drew with Joey Giardello. He's a great fighter with some flaws

 

I always felt as if the nickname “raging bull” applied to him more then Jake.

 

An ugly style relying on mauling physicality ie head, shoulders ,elbows,. I'm no fan of his but there is no denying he was effective.