Sort of a forgotten gladiator, living as he did in the shadow of countrymen Rudy Markussen (pretty similar level really, but a little more popular due to being more of a puncher) and to a much greater extent Mikkel Kessler. He was in truth a pretty classy operator. His style was a surgical one, countering at range from the lefty stance in short bursts and slinking away to reset. He was a fluid mover, and difficult to read with that heavily inked right arm used alternately for downward-swatting parries and blinding shotgun jabs to great effect. He also had a very sturdy chin, never stopped in his prime (his early TKO loss to a record-padding career loser coming unfortunately via cuts) forming a final line of defense behind the always mindful execution of his cautious in-and-out ambush technique. He even at times showed rare acuity with the shoulder-roll. He is among the number counted by most observers as having been jobbed versus Sven Ottke, along with Reaper Man Reid, Hatchet Brewer, and Road Warrior Johnson. A reversal of two rounds on two judges' cards on that night would have legitimized his résumé as more than merely 'fringe' world class. As it stands, his biggest achievements were popping Danilo Häußler's cherry (setting a trend for his fellow Danes, as both Markussen and Kessler would later make sport of bashing up the German) and knocking out Thulani Malinga. Granted, the South African was 44 years old, but in an eighteen-year campaign had only been stopped before once, by none other than Roy Jones - and within a few years prior Malinga had both defeated Nigel Benn and snatched Reid's zero. This is Mads' last ever victory of his pro career, over Italian mega-journeyman Roberto Cocco (2x Italian national 168lb champion, multiple time Euro belt trier) This content is protected Even past his prime at 35, he was pretty slick. Larsen would spend most of the next four years inactive, with a pair of stoppage losses to Brian Magee and Luke Blackledge preceded by layoffs of 13 and 30 months respectively. During this span he was slated for a Danish superfight with Rudy that would have been a massive domestic moneymaker (and could have provided either man's ledger a boost even with both having seen their best days), but it never came to pass. There was also talk of both separately crossing paths with Kessler, but he was so far beyond them (even without factoring in him being younger and fresher) it would have been a slaughter, the indignity not worth the krones. In his peak form he'd be in the European title mix today. Looking at the lineage since he briefly held the belt in 2003 (his prize for besting Häußler) there are many fragments of time where he could have reigned comfortably. Groves and Mundo Smith would make for competitive match-ups, and he'd conceivably outbox the likes of Ali Ndiaye, Rebrasse, Mohoummadi, Sanavia, Murat, Gogiya and Wilczewski. I'd only favor Chunky DeGale over him very strongly. Hagler til gylden dreng Larsen, the other tatted-up world-class Viking super-middleweight of the early millennium.
You're spot on with "gylden dreng". However, the "hail" you get when translating "hagler" into English refers to the weather phenomenon (like in "hail the size of golf balls"), rather that what you're suggesting. Using Google translation (I presume?) can sometimes be a bit confusing! And, by the way... Larsen wasn't robbed against Ottke. He simply blew a fight he should have won, by not being active enough!
yeah good fighter blackledge took this fight with something like a weeks notice and taking this risk really helped push his career forward and got his name out there to an extent credit to both mads took the younger hungry fighter risk , luke took the short notice in the vetrans back yard risk that's why I liked that fight risk reward on both fighters side
