Freddie Steele

I haven't read the homepage article yet, but here's what I can say about Steele:

Tall, rangy fighter, good all-around speed, big power in both hands.

Very underrated (as many of the '30s middleweight champs are) among the all-time great middleweights.

He's at least in the top 20 IMO, and I personally have him rated just outside my top 10.

Very accomplished and beat many of the top men of his time - Babe Risko, Vince Dundee (who had never before been stopped), Ken Overlin (who had also never been stopped), Gorilla Jones, Solly Kreiger, and future champs like Gus Lesnevich, Fred Apostoli, and Ceferino Garcia - though to be fair, Apostoli and Garcia were very green and far in the future champs when Steele beat them.

IMO he would've been a top tenner for sure, if his title reign and career had not ended so suddenly.

IMO, his one significant weakness was that he may have been a bit vulnerable to pressure, and this may have led to his sudden downfall.

Once Apostoli (another very underrated middleweight) reached his peak, Steele seemed to know he could not beat him and seemed reluctant to risk his title against him. Steele must've had his hands full with him in the first fight and was not confident he could beat him if he had more experience. Eventually, public pressure forced them into a rematch, but only above the weight without the title at stake. It was great fight, with Steele boxing well early, but he could not hold off the strength and pressure of Apostoli and was worn down to a late stoppage defeat. Even after that, Steele still refused to give him a title shot. Then he lost his title in his next defense shortly after that, on a big upset to big punching Al Hostak, who jumped on him early and blew him out in a single round. After that Steele retired. He made comeback for one fight years later, was stopped by journeyman Jimmy Casino, and then never fought again.

There has been much speculation over what brought about Steele's sudden downfall. He seemed like one of those fighters who had the world in front of him, then suffered one very crushing defeat (to Apostoli), and then for whatever reason was never was the same afterward. Reportedly, he suffered a breastbone injury in the Apostoli fight that never really healed, and that led to his loss to Hostak and his decision to quit while still at a relatively young age (only about 25 or 26). There was also talk that he lost his will to fight after the death of his longtime manager and father-figure around this same time. To me, it looked like the Apostoli fight revealed his vulnerability to inside pressure. Either way, it's the one big mar on his legacy and seems to be the reason he's largely forgotten/overlooked today.

 

Now that was a good writeup, very informative and I agree with pretty much everything you wrote. I`ll only add that while I agree with you that Steele was likely vulnerable to fighters who would pressure him, it would depend on the opponent wether or not the pressure would get to him.

Also, your not going to waltz in on a heavy hitting fella like Freddie Steele without getting tagged on the way in with some heavy artillery, so whoever takes the fight to him is gonna need a good beard to ship whatever punishment comes their way.

Apostoli fits this mold and thus was able to cause problems to Steele, stylisticaly speaking the Italian woulda always been a tough fight for him. I wish the footage of Steele`s two second round demolitions of Ceferino Garcia were on film, that is some feat to blow him out of there so early not once but twice even if he was a bit green coming in.

 

I'd also like to add that, while films of Steele are scarce, there is some that exists.

His 2-round demolition of Lesnevich (considered by many to be his best career performance) his readily available on film. There is also footage that exists of his loss to Apostoli and his wins against Babe Risko and Vince Dundee.

 

There is also a brief highlight of his KO win over Ken Overlin out there.....

 

Speaking of fighters that had never been dropped, as far as I know Steele was the only fighter to ever even drop the iron chinned Jones.

 

I believe the injury Steele suffered from in that rematch with Apostoli was already there previous to when he entered the ring for that fight, and you can find reports, including some stating that the NYSAC's own doctor, George Edson, had examined Steele in early Nov of 1937 (prior to a scheduled rematch with Apostoli that was pushed back to Jan) and found that Steele had recieved cartilage damage right at the point where the right side ribs and the breast bone met.

After the Apostoli fight, the injury was often described as being in that exact location, including Steele himself stating in mid Feb of '38 that the damage was to the "cartilage where my ribs join the breast bone". Steele himself also stated after the Apostoli rematch that the injury initially occured during the fight with Overlin in Sept of '37.

 

While Garcia was normally a tough fellow, he was thrown to the wolves badly after he first arrived in America, and as a result suffered a number of KO/stoppage losses early in his career to hardened veterans like Steele. After a couple years experience, he seemed to get his bearings and was never stopped again after that. He even ended up avenging most of those stoppage losses - except the two to Steele of course.

One of the stupidest management decisions ever has to be throwing Apostoli in against Steele after he only had about 3 or 4 pro fights, and Steele had probably had close to a hundred already. atsch