Is Sam Langford the most under rated heavyweight of all time head to head?

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by janitor, Feb 11, 2011.


  1. janitor

    janitor VIP Member Full Member

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    I fear so.

    A big puncher who had the talent on paper, but lacked comitment to training.
     
  2. Unforgiven

    Unforgiven VIP Member banned Full Member

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    did he land anything on Sam Langford ?
     
  3. janitor

    janitor VIP Member Full Member

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    The type of record based analysis that you are doing is inherantly risky given the porosity of records from that era.

    If a fighter from that era was regarded as a puncher by contemporaries, then it is usualy best to say that he packed serious power, even if he failed to score knockouts at the elite level.

    I don't think that there is any surviving footage of him.
     
  4. janitor

    janitor VIP Member Full Member

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    Yes and he hurt him like nobody else did during his prime.
     
  5. Boucher

    Boucher Well-Known Member Full Member

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    There is
     
  6. Boucher

    Boucher Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Hague never beat a top fighter,Hague never kod a fighter even remotely world class.
    Tha Moir fight was filmed by a company called Excalibur something.The Langford fight was also filmed ,and some footage survives.
     
  7. Boucher

    Boucher Well-Known Member Full Member

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    This is a very sweeping statement, that is confidently given, without a shred of evidence to support it.

    Hague knocked him over backwards but he was up quickly and took the fight to Hague, Hague momentarily staggered Langford again ,but that was his swan song.
     
  8. Unforgiven

    Unforgiven VIP Member banned Full Member

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    If Hague was so bad, then it's nothing to be proud of to be hit by him.
    But i don't know how anyone could doubt Langford's chin and durability anyway ...
     
  9. Boucher

    Boucher Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Langford's chin was ok but it was not " like an anvil".
     
  10. janitor

    janitor VIP Member Full Member

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    Yes it was prety much like an anvil.

    What other heavyweigh in history has faced as many world class punchers as frequently without getting starched?
     
  11. Boucher

    Boucher Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Name them ,and we can examine the circumstances of the fights.:good
     
  12. Duodenum

    Duodenum Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    Review the footage of Langford-Jeannette X again, which Unforgiven thoughtfully introduced to this thread. After all the previous bouts Joe had with Sam, it certainly looks as though Langford has confidence in his chin, and that Jeannette, the first man to ever stop him, and one of only two able to halt Langford prior to the final bell at this stage (Young Peter Jackson being the other), seems likewise to respect Sam's ability to take a shot as well as deliver one. Langford had 130 fights behind him at this point, in an era of four and five ounce gloves. It had been seven years since Jackson knocked him out. He would go another 49 fights before Fulton handed Sam his third stoppage defeat in 1917. Three stoppage defeats in 180 bouts against mainly heavyweight competition after 1910 is pretty impressive in my book. (Records indicate that the filmed Langford-Fireman III was Sam's 100th bout. Having just turned age 27, it's entirely possible that this, the only scheduled 45 rounder of his career, could have been his peak performance.)

    There was a ceiling even on who Greb took on, and Wills was among the select few occupying that rarefied strata. Sam took on Harry plenty of times after turning 30, and Langford owned the only two knockout wins in their rivalry until Wills finally got even in 1918. Harry was a full fledged heavyweight from the beginning of his career, and never described as a perfume puncher by any opponent during his prime that I'm aware of.
     
  13. Boucher

    Boucher Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Wills was a decent puncher but not a dynamite one .Langford was.
    Who are all these terrific puchers that Langford withstood?
    Name them please.
     
  14. janitor

    janitor VIP Member Full Member

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    Langford sustained his first knockout to Harry Wills in 1918, in his 144th recorded profesional fight (he would not be knocked out again untill 1923).

    By this stage of his career he had fought:


    Jack Johnson

    Sam McVea nearly a dozen times.

    Harry Wills half a dozen times.

    Joe Jeanette god knows how many times.

    Fred Fulton twice.

    Big Bill Tate multiple times.

    Gunboat Smith 3 times.

    Sandy Ferguson more than once.

    Battling Jim Johnson more than once.

    Jack Tomphson.

    William Hague.

    Fireman Flynn three times.

    Klondyke Haines.
     
  15. janitor

    janitor VIP Member Full Member

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    What makes you think that Wills was not a puncher?

    The guys on the business end of his punches saw things diferently.

    "Even iron will break and my jaw aint made of iron. It wouldn't do to take too many of those"

    Sam Langford.