Marcel Cerdan

Ezzard Charles also though eddie machen was going to be the next dominant world champion.

Look Ez, marcel has a great record and great talent on film, but most of those 100 wins consist of european garbage that he padded his record with. Jake Lamotta was busy in america tangling with the black murders row....even when cerdan came to america he struggled his win over georgie abrams is less to be desired, and many think anton raddick got jobbed.

 

Don't sell Georgie Abrams short, S. Forget BoxRec, Georgie was a helluva fighter.

 

Abrams was good, Robinson claimed in his book how good Abrams was, along the lines of abrams gave him his toughest fight in his prime.


Thing is how do you think marcel would have fared vs Charley Burley, Ray Robinson, Lloyd Marshall, Jack Chase, or how bout the best french middleweight at the time Robert Villemain?


Im suprised Villemain vs Cerdan two best french middleweights of that era never came off

 

yes, you have to take what fighters say with a pinch of salt... machen was a great talent in his own right.

La Motta had the better resume but that's partly because he was in America and partly because Cerdan lost out to WW II and then had his career cut short. Many observers of the time, including John, think Cerdan was a slight favourite to win the rematch. The injury was a factor but the result is the result. I'm a fan of Jake's but circumstance is always a factor.

I still contest that he didn't pad his record. He fought who was there. Contemporary fighters pad their records to get their title shots. Cerdan was merely fighting...and nto all of those europena guys were garbage. I think raddick's great final round played a big part in the stink over the decision but Cerdan was the rightful winner in terms of rounds won.

I accept your belief in La Motta but Cerdan's career is better than you make it out to be.

 

Funny, of all the guys you mention here, S, I think Villemain's the surest win for Cerdan. The others are like the meat of the Yankees' batting order in the '40s -- a nightmare for any pitcher.

 

Honestly wish I knew more ... huge amount of overseas fights, don't fully know the level of competition but destroyed a Zale that had just looked amazing v.s. Graziano ... the LaMotta rematch could have been a huge answer ... too tragic and too bad ...

 

Veteran fight manager Dan Morgan (Jack Britton being his most famous export) believed alongside Robinson and Pep that Cerdan was the best fight fighter to compete in the 1940's an 50's.

That is how special some believed Cerdan to be, at the apex, and the more you analyze his work the clearer the picture becomes.

 

Cerdan certainly looked like an awesome fighter on film, but it's hard to assess how good he really was because he was in relatively few big fights. If he was really as good as he looked, though, then he was one helluva fighter.