This one could have been interesting. I lean toward Fullmer based on both of them and how they did with Ray Robinson. However styles do make the fights.What do you think?
This is one hard fight to handicap. It seems on this board that Olson,Basilio,Turpin, and Fullmer are often denegrated. I do not get it! These are hall of fame fighters! I'll take Fullmer by a narrow dec
Gene Fullmer was waaaayyyy too strong for the aggressive but not too terribly rugged Bobo Olson. He tears him up on the inside and roughs him up way too much in general and takes everything Olson can dish out in return for a brutal 7th to 9th round ko. This would almost resemble Fullmer-Paret.
While I agree with you that Fullmer was the stronger of the two, it wasn`t by much and I don`t think he would stop Olson. Bobo mixed it up with some very tough, durable guys as a middleweight and knocked out or convincingly beat many of them. He also rumbled and held his own with some tough, hard hitting lightheavyweights, and he did so when he was already on the slide so there is no way Fullmer does a Paret-like number on Olson. As a middleweight he was only ever stopped by the Sugar Man himself, who had the right mix of speed, power and timing to catch Bobo cold which he did in two of their four encounters. There is no shame there though as those were some hard blows that put him down for the count and both times he never saw them coming, yet he still made it back to his feet afterwards which goes to show what a tough guy Bobo was to get back up from such devastatingly hard and accurate shots. As to how this fight would unfold, I`d say it`s a fifty-fifty fight honestly. Olson was one strong guy and he could mix it up with Gene if he had to in close quarters, and he could also box him from the outside if that was his best shot at victory. My guess though is that both these men would come to fight and war with each other, and in that kind of fight I slightly favour Fullmer to win a close, possibly controversial decision. But Bobo could just as easily box his way to victory, or rumble with Gene in close and pull out the win, which is what makes it so hard for me to pick a definate winner. Either way, if they fought 3 times Bobo definately gets the better of Gene at least once, and I think each fight goes the distance. Bobo is quite underrated as a fighter, and he had some good wins during his career against some tough, tough guys and that cannot be overlooked. He also slipped punches very well just by slightly moving his head to either the left or right, and would dodge punches that would miss by and inch or two and then counter with his own punches... very skilled in that regard old Bobo was.
Very good post. Enjoyed the insight on the fight. After Olson fought Moore for the light heavy title (KO by 3) then the comebacking Robinson in back to backs (KO by 2,KO by 4). That is too much for any middleweight to get past. Thrown to the wolves...in a big way.
