How good of a fighter was Marcel Cerdan?

I have highlights of a few Cerdan fights on DVD.

Firstly, I think he was a BADASS fighter.

Secondly, his win over Tony Zale is very meaningful despite Zale's age. I mean, Zale was still one of the strongest, most durable middleweights who ever lived, and anyone who has seen the fight cant fail to be impressed by the sheer strength, power and all-round fighting skills Cerdan displays. He picks his shots beautifully, and he's intense with body-punching, forcing the fight as well as countering. A devastating cumulative puncher against the man of steel. He's the genuine article.

Thirdly, I think it's highly unlikely that all those European fighters he beat were "bums". Some must have been good fighters. I mean, Cerdan learned his stuff somewhere.
When he came to America he was highly praised by American fighters and writers.
There's a tendency to look at his record and see a load of unknown European fighters with few or no recorded fights, but that's not necessarily an accurate picture either.
The quality of these fighters was almost certainly not equal with the contenders in America, but some of them were most likely very solid pros, and not all "bums".
Cerdan impressed the hell out of the Americans so I reckon he'd fought a fair few good fighters on his way up.

Maybe a French boxing historian needs to be consulted before we make judgments on the quality of the comp. Cerdan was exposed to in the 30s and 40s.

As an aside, and I'm not saying it's true, I've heard it suggested that Sugar Ray postponed a planned move on the middleweight title when Cerdan was holding it.

 

Herb Goldman rates Cerdan very highly...He looks very good on film to me. I wonder if Holman Williams had anything left at the time of their fight(?) I know it was at the end of Holman's career.