Most Underated Middleweight?

The irony being in the late 70s he was the most overrated 160lber on the planet!

 

I would nominate Teddy Yarosz for the following reasons:
1. Yarosz fought 11 world champions and defeated 10 of them, running up the outstanding record of 13-5 against world champions. He defeated Tommy Freeman, Vince Dundee, Ben Jeby, Pete Latzo, Babe Risko, Ken Overlin, Solly Krieger, Lou Brouillard, Billy Conn, and Archie Moore.
He lost twice to Risko and Conn before reversing against each and winning the last match.
The only champion he fought and did not defeat was Ezzard Charles, whom Yarosz lost to in his next to last fight.
2. When boxing integrated in the late 1930's, Yarosz fought the toughest black fighters and won against Moore, Al Gainer, Nate Bolden, Jimmy Reeves and Lloyd Marshall
3. Yarosz's resume has a great deal of depth, defeating 26 men who were ranked in Ring Magazine's yearly rankings at one time or another.
4. Yarosz might actually be better than his excellent 107-18-3 record implies. A stylish and fast moving boxer, he hurt his knee in the first round in his first fight against Babe Risko. Unable to move, he suffered several knockdowns but was not counted out. He still had knee problems and was limping in the rematch which he lost. After his knee was fixed by an operation, he defeated Risko decisively.
He also lost several disputed decisions, the rawest against Tommy Gomez. The ringside press saw this as a shutout for Yarosz in Gomez's home town, but Gomez got the nod.
5. Although it does not directly speak to his abilities, Yarosz has a rather impressive accomplishment. He defeated champions from every decade from the twenties (Latzo) to the sixties (Moore), five consequtive decades in total. Even Ali can't match that.

Yarosz has been all but forgotten by history, although he did finally make the Hall-of-Fame. He is perhaps fairly seen as less impressive than twenties champs Greb and Walker and fifties champ Robinson. He has also been unfairly shunted aside for flashy forties champs Zale, Cerdan, and LaMotta, none of whom, in my judgement, accomplished as much.

 

Glad to see some agree, the guy has win over Archie Moore, Aaron Wade, Charley Burley, Cocoa Kid, Jack Chase, Eddie Booker, Lloyd Marshall and Satterfield. Only a handful of fighters can claim to have beaten as many or more quality opponents, yet he still hardly gets a mention amongst the greats he is yet to be inducted in the hall of fame.

 

Joey Giardello gets a shout from me ,Freddie Steele a good mention from another poster,how good was Tommy Ryan,?Valdes obviously suffered substantially by being around in the Monzon years,he may well have had an extended reign.Holman Williams was another good pick from a poster.

 

Id like to add
Laszlo Papp
Teddy Yarosz
Eddie Risko
Billy Papke
Paul Pender

 

:good

 

forgot to add Soose

 

Tony Sibson a great fighter, He had alot of skill & was very impressive coming up. But he was boxing in an era of a dominate prime Hagler.

 

We do have film on Darcy think God. Vs Crabby and Smith I belive. One of the fights I have all the rounds too. All ten rounds of action(In highlight form of couse) Darcy can hit, he was a brawler, but he added tactics to it, He was sort of like Dempsey. To bad I cant say the same for Greb in regards to film.

 

when i saw this thread i just only thought of him

tall quick amazing jab southpaw very skillful and slick for his size and power was underated he could bang but wasnt a slugger or had a style that complemented it

 

Dwight Davison was actually a good Middleweight, But his laidback style didn't win too many fans. Plus he had long strings of inactivity between fights.

 

Nunn's a decent shout, tho he didn't end up quite as good as we thought he would he was still a fine fighter for a time. Many claim he was yet another victim (during the end of his reign) of drugs. Pryor, Chandler, the 80's had plenty of em.