Gibbons, Yarosz, or Steele?

Awesome to see Freddie Steele getting some love, though I may be biased, as I wrote a story on him a few years ago...I don't think i have enough of an education to give an educated guess on this, but I do think Steele is very under appreciated...In some lists I've seen in the 50's and 60's many considered Steele a top 10 middleweight, and I can't imagine he's fallen too far down the list....interested to see where this topic goes.

 

I would because of the accolades of the oldtime boxing writers,Mike Gibbons,I rate
as possibly best of the three...a boxing wizard.
Freddie Steele as a great puncher and classic boxer who was almost unbeatable ,
until his breastbone was fractured in a bout with the underated fred apostoli. I rate next.
teddy Yarosz was like Mike Gibbons a great boxer in a tough middleweight era...
All would be certainly champs today, no doubt...

 

"He just had to much up here" said Archie Moore tapping his temple, after the Polish Panther delivered to him a thorough boxing lesson.

 

Nate Bolden had similar praise for Yarosz.

 

Im going with Gibbons for a few reasons. First and foremost because he was so highly regarded during his time. If you get away from the biased New York reports (and even some of those are glowing in their praise) he pretty much ruled supreme as the P4P best for several years before WW1. Second because stylistically he had a major impact on boxing in general and on the upper midwest in particular. Gibbons did so much to cement boxing's popularity up north it cannot be under sold. His style as well was still being being used by several different schools of fighters who had their roots, or whose teachers had their roots in and around the twin cities nearly 40 yrs after he retired. Finally, in a pound for pound sense Gibbons was really limited by his physical dimensions. He was really too small for MW and too big for WW but managed to fight with great success at both weights and even took on some bigger fighters with success. He really was a towering figure pre 1920 that has sadly been somewhat forgotten.

 

And Gene Tunneys hero.

 

I will vote for Yarosz here. He had a remarkable recored in many ways, defeating 10 world champions, including Billy Conn and Archie Moore. In an era when many top white fighters ducked tough black fighters, Yarosz was in with the best, and did darn well against them until he was nearing the end.

 

Gibbons defeated: Greb (HOF), McCoy, Chip, ODowd, Dillon (HOF), and TK Lewis(HOF). In addition to those champions he defeated claimants such as: Frank Mantell, Dave *********, Eddie McGoorty, Jeff Smith, Willie Lewis, Jimmy Clabby, Kid Graves, and Leo Houck.

I just realized by looking over this list how ridiculous it is that Miske and Norfolk are in the HOF and some of these guys like ODowd, McGoorty, Smith, and Houck arent.

 

As JFK said "life is not fair "...

 

Yarosz defeated many champions, title claimants and top contenders as well such as:

Billy Conn (many thought he won 2 of the 3)
Archie Moore
Lloyd Marshall
Ken Overlin
Vince Dundee
Lou Brouillard
Solly Krieger
Al Gainer
Nate Bolden
Tommy Freeman
Ben Jeby
Pete Latzo

Their records are certainly comparable and it's a debatable issue (both are horribly underrated middleweights). But I think I would have to give Gibbons the edge as well.

 

I give Yarosz very high marks for his fights with Conn and Moore. Particularly Conn who was just entering his prime at that point. The Moore win was still when Moore was developing both physically and skillwise. You have to think that in a year or two a different Moore would beat Yarosz. The others were good, maybe very good, but I dont rate those guys as great. It was a weak era to begin with and Pete Latzo and Tommy Freeman were absolutely geriatric when they fought Yarosz. I know I know Freeman had a ton of wins after the Yarosz fight but theres a reason why, its because they were against guys that made Roy Jones opponents look like Harry Greb and Sam Langford rolled into one.

 

I am inclined to say Gibbons here.

 

With Gibbons he beat Greb when Greb was just entering his prime, maybe not quite there. Beat McCoy in his prime (although I admit that is nothing to brag about), Beat Jeff Smith in his prime, beat Jack Dillon in his prime (the tail end of it but still in his prime), Chip was probably slipping being a year or two past it IMO, ODowd was arguably in his prime (some might say his prime was earlier, I think he improved as champion), beat TK Lewis in his prime (IMO, despite TK having just lost to Britton the month before and being outweighed), Beat *********, McGoorty, Kid Graves, Houck, and Clabby all in their primes as well (Although I dont rate ********* very high at all. He was a paper champ). Willie Lewis was past his best but I dont consider Willie Lewis a great fighter to begin with.

In addition to that a lot of the contenders he beat like Moha, Brennan, and Bartfield were in their primes and pretty close to championship calibre as well

 

I think very highly of Steele based on the filmed footage of him that exists. He looks a fantastic, powerful boxer-puncher. Like a latter day Fitz.