How solid was Dick Ecklund?

He was skilled but a powder-puff puncher and also inconsistent due to his heroin habit.

I think he was New England welterweight champ back when regional titles meant something — sort of king of your particular hill.

I think his ceiling if he had been clean was probably somewhere around the edge of fringe contender or USBA/NABF challenger — maybe if he got put in with the right guy without his drug problems he could have eeked out a win for a belt like that but he wouldn’t hold it long or ascend any higher.

I say that without much knowledge except seeing the Leonard fight (or at least a good bit of it iirc) and looking at his record.

As it was, he was a journeyman.

 

Pretty much mirroring the same as the above post, he was obviously a very tough man who had his issues, but from a boxing perspective, the film completely overstates how good he was. Micky was much better.

 

Dick was inconsistent. He could be rock solid sometimes, a complete flop at others.

 

Dicky seemed to loss to all decent fighters he fought, Dave "Boy" Green, Kevin Howard, Willie Rodriguez.

Always went the limit (never stopped in 10 losses) and according to boxrec he lost 5 split decisions (including Howard+Rodriguez) of those 10.

Maybe had he been clean and on a good day could have won the Nabf title from Pete Ranzany or Bruce Finch and I´d have him as a favourite over Greg Stephens or Jose Dominguez who briefly held the title whilst Eklund was at his best.

Arguably his best win, most brutal ko over Canadian title contender Allen Clarke:

This content is protected

 

Mrs Meta has said the same at times - but no means no and I'm not a robot.