How good was the leamington licker. Beat Robinson to become world champion and knocked out don't cockell who gave Marciano a tough fight at heavyweight. Looks pretty impressive to me.
Looks nasty on film like hes trying to kill you. There was a thread on him a little while ago with highlights. Nasty vicious fighter
Awesome fighter. Very strong and sturdy, springing and turning like a piston. Great unorthodox defense and strong offense. His win over Robinson is up there with the best.
I can't imagine Olson being capable of defeating a prime Turpin so he should have regained the World Middleweight Title in 1953 but Turpin was beset with personal problems at the time. But this was the story of his life. He was affected by issues (falling out with those who could protect him, depression, compulsive spending) that damaged his career and then destroyed his life once his career was over. If he had not been distracted by these issues, I think he had the potential to hold on to the World Middleweight Title after beating Olson until Sugar Ray Robinson or Gene Fullmer came calling. A very talented boxer and unbelievably strong but he lacked the ability to deal with the fame and fortune that resulted from these qualities.
An excellent fighter imo with a too short prime. As the case with so many fighters, ended up with a career ruined due to out of the ring activity s. But at his best? Capable of giving any top middleweight an extremely hard night!
He was huge for a middleweight and very very awkward. Almost kangaroo-like, hopping in with flurries and bounding around. At his best he'd have been a nightmare to fight.
Just to give you an idea of how short Turpin's reign as Middleweight Champion of the World was... If he had won the title from Robinson on the day of the Wilder vs Fury rematch, then he would have lost the title TODAY. It must be very difficult to come to terms with being dethroned so quickly.
