Rare footage of Ken Overlin

Ken Overlin was a member of the "forgotten" era of '30s MW titleholders. Like other titleholders of his era, he was notably talented, but failed to carve out a long or memorable title reign. He was also a fighter who spent much of his career in the backwoods, falling short in his big fights and generally taking a backseat to most of the other big names in his division, before finally "breaking out" in the late stages of his career.

Here is one of his early career fights, which he lost by decision, against rugged Australian contender Fred Henneberry. Overlin is in the black trunks with the stripes:
[yt]DC9Q3fl5AWE[/yt]
(Thanks to Raging_B(_)LL for providing this particular clip.)
As you can see here, Overlin was a unique fighter. He was short and bulky, yet very quick all-around, and had an unorthodox and unpredictable style of constantly dancing, holding, and flurrying. He was often likened in his day to a "poor man's Harry Greb."
Overlin had outpointed HOFer and future MW champ Fred Apostoli to earn a shot at Freddie Steele's title. By accounts, he made a very gutty and determined effort against Steele, taking it to him and attempting to bully and outslug him the way Apostoli would successfully do soon afterward; but Steele put together some big punches in the 4th round to KO Overlin for one of the very, very few times in his long career.
Years later, Overlin was given another shot at the MW title against the highly regarded titleholder Ceferino Garcia. Many people expected Garcia to whack out Overlin much as Steele had, but Overlin produced probably the finest performance of his career, decisively outboxing and outfoxing Garcia to a clear decision.
Here is footage from a non-title fight shortly after his title fight win, against the sometimes rated LHW Ralph DeJohn. Overlin is in the lighter trunks without stripes.
[yt]zgDv3lz3ti8[/yt]
Overlin successfully defended his title twice in two close, tough fights against top contender Steve Belloise, before two losses to Billy Soose (one in a non-title match and the other for the title) ended his days as a champion. He would fight for another several years, campaigning mainly as a LHW, going undefeated for the remainder of his career, but never received another chance to fight for a title. In that time he scored two of his most notable wins - a decision over former MW champ Al Hostak, and a clear decision over the unbeaten up-and-coming ATG Ezzard Charles, who he also floored. He also held Charles to a draw in a rematch in Charles' hometown of Cincinnati. Overlin's unique style often resulted in some ugly, hard to score fights, with his wins over Apostoli and Belloise and losses to Soose being highly controversial. However, his wins over Charles, Hostak, and Garcia were all considered clear and decisive.