Is Frankie Randall a great fighter?

I'd call him a very good one, but I'm very sparing with the word great.

 

I was a huge Chavez fan, from his LA debut. Frankie Randall could fight and he gave me a bad feeling. I believe he did some time and then got knocked out by Primo Ramos in two, and I figured he was done. Turns out I was mistaken and my bad feeling proved out. Very good fighter.

 

Don't think he rises to the level of "All Time Great.' But, Randall was definitely a great fighter.

 

No, he wasn't great. But his brother Frankie Valli was without a doubt great.

















sarcasm

 

At his peak he was great. But his peak wasn't too long.

At his peak he was better than, for example, Tzyu.

He did have Don King behind him. Of course, King was also behind Chavez (conflict of interest? Of course not, just insert Carl King as the "paper" manager of Randall.)

The win over Chavez was of course a great performance by Randall. He engaged Chavez in many thrilling toe to toe exchanges and his straight punches landed over and over on Chavez's amazingly hard head. Finally, a Joe Louis like straight right deposited a stunned Chavez on the canvass in the 11th round.

On that night, Randall would have defeated a lot of very good 140 pounders.

The next day I sat down on the typewriter (Yes, they were still around in '94) and pounded out a letter to KO that got published in the mag.

"Randall showed, for one night at least, what a complete fighter can and should be - highly skilled in the ring, and exhibiting a good attitude outside of it."

 

I think he was better than Phillips peak for peak. That's one reason I rate Randall higher than Tzyu peak for peak, as Vince took out Kostya.

 

He was a great talent but not a great fighter he doesn't have the career to back up greatness

 

no.

 

That night he beat Chavez, he attained a level of greatness...in the same way that Buster Douglas did.....but he didn't sustain it past that one fight.

 

Well, he did back it up with a great performance in the second Chavez fight. After geting screwed there, he very easily beat Coggi for the WBA title. He was consistently very good thru the end of '94. Then, supposed alcohol problems and inactivity resulted in a regression. He still beat Coggi again in '96 but not as easily as in their first fight.

 

He sure did get screwed...like my man Jimmy Young always did...big time in that rematch.

 

I know Frankie, we were all stunned when he got stopped by Ramos, then the rumors got out about what he'd been doing and then it was like okay that figures. He got his head screwed on straight for a while and when the Chavez fight come up I said Frankie can hit Julio with the straight right and hurt him. He always said he could beat him at 140 pounds. What surprised me about that fight was Frankie was stronger inside during the clinches and Chavez was the one backing out. Handling success is often harder than handling failure this and his entourage of phony friends did him in. He's not doing very well right now in a care facility last I heard. Lost about 10 fights in a row at the end, guys he would have smoked earlier, this hasn't helped his condition. Frankie was not a great fighter, but on occasion he could fight great!

 

You are right about the people behind him, he had no one looking out for him. His stories of Don King fits the reputation of that snake. I know a lot of stories about him,I grew up with Frankie and after his career was practically over he had countless run in's with the police. Once the police were arresting him and he ran and a 215 pound rookie cop was chasing him. Sergeant Pete when alerted that this kid was after Frankie, radioed him to let Frankie go he'd pick him up later. This rookie cop didn't know who Frankie was and said I can see him and the Sergeant ordered him to stop and he did. When Pete pulled up and got on the loudspeaker he told him to come out and Frankie got in the front seat and they went to jail. When the rookie asked why he made him stop Pete told him , if Frankie didn't want to go with you, he'd have knocked you out! Another time Frankie was mopping the floors in jail since he was well liked in Morristown and the cops brought in a big guy who started a fight when they tried to put him in the cell, the cops were struggling mightily , Frankie put down his mop and cracked the guy with a right hand knocking him out. Then he picked up his mop and went back to work.