Who do you rank higher purely at MW? THIL: There is some disagreement as to his claim on lineage,but Ring lists him as the legitimate champion of the world for part of 1932, all of 33, 34 and 35, and part of '36. He was a career MW and boxed there for a decade and his best scalps include Lou Brouillard, Kid Tunero and Jock McAvoy. His resume is wide but perhaps not that deep. CERDAN: Nobody seems to argue his title credentials but on the other hand his reign was but nine months. Not a career middleweight, he boxed there for around six years before his life was cut tragically short. His best scalps include Holman Williams, Tony Zale and Georgie Abrahams. My feeling is he has the better best wins. Who do you think is the greater French middle?
I've always been high on Cerdan and low on Thil but Klompton educated me on Baldy. Cerdan was probably slightly past prime when he won the crown from a faded Zale.Im happy to rank the two on a par.
Absolutely untrue. Go back and watch those fights and tell me with a straight face thats what happened. Broulliard couldnt handle Thils strength and took the easy way out rather than be embarrassed.
Cerdan wins. Cerdan has an excellent record. Just 4 losses in 115 fights. More impressive is 2 of the losses were via DQ, and the other via an injury vs an all time great ( LaMotta ) who created the injury by throwing Cerdan to the matt. Cerdan other loss was on points which he avenged. The film on Cerdan is impressive and as you mentioned he clearly could defeat class opponents.
So the middleweights he beat were better than those that Thil beat? Even though Cerdan's best wins were either very close or versus opponents well past their prime (or both)?
Well if those wins were close it doesn't really matter; if they were past their prime it probably would. Still, when I look at Thil's record I don't see a vast difference at all between he and Cerdan.
Never been impressed by many of those 30s guys some guys consider borderline greats like Thil, Brouillard, Gorilla Jones, Apostoli, McAvoy etc I can see the appeal in terms of depth of record vs other contenders etc...something which can come much easier in that era even to a rather ordinary fighter, than an equivalent from post 50s\60s tbh. It was well behind the late 80s\early 90s in terms of the inherent talent and quality of all the "possibly excellent\great" types that were kicking around. As for Cerdan, i think he was likely much better as a Welter.
Cerdan, without a doubt. Zale's scalp alone assures that. And to outright clinch the matter, did Thil ever bed Edith Piaf ? I rest my case.
there's some freaky looking chicks called 5ex symbols today too, but what the fuk happened to her eyebrows?
A gross exaggeration ! He had, a few weeks prior, stopped a prime Graziano. Besides, Cerdan wasn't exactly at the beginning of his career either. (And Edith was prime!)