Having read a decent number of fight reports, I have no confidence in describing his fighting style. He was the great ring general, but hard to know what they meant by that (the boxing lingo back then was totally different, so you can't assume the meaning is the same as now)
This round by round of his win over George LaBlanche in 1886 describes him boxing on the move and counterpunching - "LaBlanche forced the fighting, and grew more astonished than ever when he found what difficulty he had in landing. Dempsey danced around him, avoiding the heavy blows and accepting the light ones in exchange for some not so light." My favourite part is the bit in the eighth round where the referee, like a tennis umpire, admonishes the crowd for cheering. https://pasteboard.co/KfGtnjw.png
Yea, agreed it was another world ago, same with Young Griffo another genius of the era, but were they really ? For me seeing Kecthel on YT opened my eyes and mind, to the real quality and ring nuance of the 1890-1910 breed, seems if Stan is anything to go by, they were not all the writers of the time thought they were ( if you get my drift ) so I tend to sort of dismiss the claims of greatness. keep well.
We have only two fights of past prime Ketchel - both against fighters who made their careers by making opponents look bad (Johnson also had massive physical advantage). On top of that, Ketchel wasn't seen as any sort of boxing genius back then - he was praised for his power and agression.
I will take issue with your assertion that Stan was past his " prime " in both fights, not least because he died before his 25th birthday ! also floored JJ , so must have been in with a shout no ? . Of course he wasn't a boxing genius, any pundit with even a scant knowledge of boxing knows that, my reference was to his very crude and to be honest almost clumsy like attempts at be aggressive, having feasted on hundreds of articles of how " great " he was, it was disappointing to actually see him on film, and for my money he is not in the top bracket of MW far from it. keep well.
Ok, but you did write " only have 2 fights of PAST prime etc, " so was a tad confused buddy . keep well.
I think of mid-career Juan Manuel Marquez. Putting pressure on the space providing opportunities to lead while remaining mobile and most of all counter-punches while baiting the opponent into punching, either with that consistent pressure or tricks and traps. Probably not a box-mover but definitely balanced with excellent footwork.
