How good was Sam Langford?

When he had the height and reach advantage, as he did against Barbadoes Joe Walcott, he was excellent at sticking and moving, outmaneuvering his opponent. When he was past his prime, he one punched a peak Harry Wills twice, with a left hook each time as Wills moved in for the kill.

This is probably the clearest extended footage of Langford in action, Joe Jeannette X in Paris. This bout is significant in Sam's career, since it completely erased the widespread notion of Langford as a ten round fighter, particularly with those three KDs in round 13.

December 20, 1913:

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Bill Lang wants nothing to do with Langford's power:

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Langford himself regarded Gans as the GOAT, but like other old timers was utterly transfixed by Joe Louis. Jack Blackburn had competed many rounds against a young Langford and told Louis that Sam was the standard the Bomber should strive for, until he finally told Louis "bring on Langford!"

Because Langford came up through so many weights over so many years, he really could do it all. I imagine as he got into his 30s at HW that he was probably not unlike Frazier, primarily getting inside to break down taller opponents with hooks to the body as those opponents tried to box him at longer range.

 

Hes the smallest HW champion and is the one with almost all the longevity records(Stribling has 1 more total fight). He has over twice as many fights and rounds as Harry Greb. By my count he has about twice as many fights against HW contenders as Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis.

The contender total is actually a bit deflated because top guys he fought a bunch of times are not being counted like McVea, Jeff Clark, Bill Tate and Jack Thompson.

Langford was capable of knocking out guys a foot taller than him easy if they were anything less than an ATG. Fulton and Andre Anderson were both 6 ft 6 but Fulton was an ATG and Anderson was borderline top 10. A few weeks after getting destroyed by Fulton in 1917 he came back and knocked out Andre Anderson just as easily as Fulton had beaten him. He did this at 5 7 206 pounds having sacrificed almost all of his mobility. Langfords ideal form was 45 pounds lighter at 160 pounds a weight where he he knocked out Lang in 1911. IMO this is one of the most impressive HW wins ever.

Langford has a losing record against Wills but they both have 2 stoppages and through 5 fights it was 2-2-1. In his late 30s Langford went undefeated against Godfrey with 2 knockouts and a draw.

On paper Langford was a HW/LHW/MW champ but he left MW in his early 20s and he had one fight at LHW where he won a poorly documented title and left. Langford was a career HW pretty much.

 

He left MW for HW at 24 and had 1 LHW fight. This doesn't deflate his resume in any meaningful way.

This is not the actual number but its about a 195-60 split between HW and the other weight classes.

Stribling and Grebs resumes are split up a lot more.

 

"He has over twice as many fights and rounds as Harry Greb."

Care to elaborate?

 

Fights
Langford 254
Greb 122

Rounds
Langford 1998
Greb 1007

CORRECTION

Okay they've got the wrong totals on boxer rec at the top of the page. The fights is really 313-303 in favor of Langford and rounds I'm not counting all that jfc. They have wrong totals listed on Langford, Greb and some others pages. I didn't know it was off that much on later eras. I was sorta aware there were 2 numbers but difference between the count tends to be much smaller and I chalked it up to unofficial bouts or something. But holy smokes.

 

HARRY GREB- 261-18-19-1 (49 KOS) 299 FIGHTS 13 YEARS

SAM LANGFORD 210-43-53-8 (126 KOS) 314 FIGHTS 23 YEARS

 

Power is power and for a guy that easily could have stayed at 160 and then 168 well into his 30’s he wrecked heavyweights. There’s not much film but he looks technically good vs Jeannette. I think if he was raised for this era he’d have dominated … Think Qwai with twice the power.

 

This is the peak of Langfords career. This seems to have been a title fight according to the program. Langford wasn't replaced as the NSC champion until a few months later.

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Lang was the best HW of Australias golden age. For the tail end of the 1900s Lang was the HW divisions biggest mix of size and power. The first "Clubber Lang". Per the historical rankings I use he was ranked in the top 5 at the end of 1909 and 1910.

Langford weighs 161 in this fight and Lang weighs 203.

 

I always thought he felt like a greater,more accomplished and disciplined version of Jose Stable(welterweight contender), he's small but could box,move and pressure,idk about Stable's reach but for Langford's case he had a long reach for a man his height, Duran only had reach if 6'6 from what I remember, Langford is roughly the same height and had a whopping 7'4 in comparison.

 

I think most people in the thread ignored the OP.

In terms of style, from what we see on film, imo Langford is like a more powerful, tankier prototype of Toney or Qawi, with a much lower punch output, lesser jab and higher focus on the clinch. His infighting was obviously very good and very strong. He had the hands very low as nearly all pre Walker Law fighters did, had a good rear hand parry and rarely threw combos. His jab was more of a stiff arm than a weapon in the modern sense. Solid but not extraordinary footwork.

Judging by his physical abilities, intangibles and longevity, he would obviously adapt well to any era he competed in. If you just transported the filmed Langford into modern day and had him compete in modern rules and equipment, he would simply be outworked and look silly, though he always has the power equaliser. IMHO he isn't even the most impressive filmed fighter from the era aesthetically or technically, but his history speaks for itself.

 

Miguel Cotto sends these two bums into a deep slumber. Neither of them would be prepared for this precision timing , counter punching and body punching. He brings an advanced skill set that simply did not exist in that era.

This Lang fella wouldn't even beat Chris Eubank Jr. . He's a danger to himself in the modern ring. He wouldn't be sanctioned as an opponent for the likes of Fabio Wardley. The man has no concept of how to box at professional standard whatsoever.

 

Langford never won the HW championship and even if he had, Tommy Burns is still a half inch shorter than him.

 

If anyone says he's crap then they need to stick to golf..

 

The sheer number of fights is insane.

In today's era it's hard to even get a tenth of what Greb or Langford had.

 

Sam Langford had more than 1 x fight contested at LHW, i.e. >160lbs<175lbs - including vs Philadelphia Jack O'Brien (Langford = 170lbs; O'Brien 168lbs) when Langford was 28 and a fight vs Fireman Jim Flynn contested at 175lbs when Langford was 25.

I agree Langford didn't contest many bouts at LHW, though stand by my contention that at points in his career he'd have been able to beat anyone in the world in a bout contested at 175lbs. e.g. I doubt that any fighter active in 1912, could have weighed under 175lbs and beaten the 168lbs Sam Langford that knocked out the 205lbs world class HW contender Sam McVea in 11 rounds during the October of that year.

Your claim that Langford contested about 195 x bouts at HW & around 60 below HW is quite a way off. 195 + 60 = 255. Langford had at least 314-fights, as verified by Boxrec. You're right the majority were contested at HW, though. Sam contested around 237 (going 167-36-34) of those 314 x fights above 180lbs, according to my notes. I say "around", as Langford had plenty of fights where no weights were published, or at least there's no trace of those weights in the public domain today, and for these contests I assigned them to a weight division based on a guestimate of weights derived from recent fights where weights were published.