Sam Langford: freak of nature who could beat the big men in any era

I like Sam.

He is the proof of how bad the ancient eras were.

 

Qawi is always listed as 5'6 or 5'7 and he looks at least 8 inches shorter than Foreman there, the top of his head is around Foreman's chin height.

Langford is listed variously as 5'6, 5'7 and 5'8 (on cyber boxing zone)

 

Sam was very capable and beat a lot of big guys, he was a solid guy and you can see that he stood up vs some hard hitters like Stanly Ketchel as well as the best black heavys of the time. Fortunatly he did not have to meet a heavyweight puncher like Vlad Klitschko because there is a difference in power punchers from a Klitschko and a Harry Wills. I thinka 5"7 178lb Langford was better than a 5"9 230lb James Toney but I think Sam would be at a serious disadvantage vs Lennox Lewis,Vitali or Vlad, even Tyson or Evander but I would not sell Sam SHORT, he was still dangerous

 

Big Bill Tate sucked.

 

Yeah, not to **** on the thread or anything, but if we're being honest, at HW, he gets handled by a guy like Wlad.

 

I dont want to speculate too much on Langford Vs. Wlad Klitschko, BUT ... I haven't been particularly impressed by Wlad so far. Sure, he's big and powerful, and he can box a bit, but I've seen him lose to far lesser guys than Langford, quite badly.And most of the guys he beat offered little resistance, none of them were real terrors or even particularly awkward.

Langford at his peak was one of the greatest heavtweight boxer/punchers ever - testimony of people who saw him made comparisons later with JOE LOUIS and JACK DEMPSEY. His opposition may not have been amazing always either, but his record and his reputation stands up well against any fighter in history. He's a bona fide legend.
So you have to take his chances seriously.
Obviously Wlad has a size advantage and he's good - probably the best in the world as of now - so his chances are good too.

 

Not really. It would be stopped inside two.

All moving picture evidence reveals Sam had a rather non-existant defence.

 

exactly what im saying, he has an iron chin but he leads with it and i just cant see that working against someone as big strong skilled and powerful as wlad

 

Average but effective.

 

There's hardly any moving picture evidence to go on, it's rare and it's not particularly clear. How many Langford fights have you seen ?
(Bear in mind that he had about 300!)

I've seen shadowy and brief highlights of only two Langford fights.

Guys who knew Langford, saw him fight up close dozens of times, they all thought he had defensive skills, which he must have done to build that record and reputation in that many fights.