Tell me about Sammy Langford...

'I think Sam Langford was the greatest fighter we ever had. In 1916 I came here and had a couple of fights and won them. I was managed by a fellow named John the Barber. After winning these two fights he said, "I got a good fight for you." I said, "Who is it?" He says, "Sam Langford." I said, "Not me! Goodbye!" He was a great fighter and I didn't have the experience to fight a man like that. He was a hell of a puncher, never been licked, so why should I get my brains knocked out for nothing? Even at my best I don't know whether I could lick him or not. He was a good man, good puncher, rough, tough.'

Jack Dempsey 1970.

 

He hated to be called "Sammy".

That word is reserved for Uncle Roger when he at Quizno's.

 

Salmon?

 

"What are you talking about Roger? Salmon is a FISH!"



Those two should have their own show.

Corny would be great as the Straight Man.

 

You might get a better response in the classic forum :good

Try searching through some of the threads in there

 

He is probably the greatest fighter to never win a world title. He beat Joe Gans (the great lightweight), 1lb above the divisional weight limit, and went on to flatten great heavyweights with his furious power. 180 wins, 130 by knockout.

I have no problem whatsoever with people rating him as the greatest fighter ever in a p4p sense

 

And yeah, I agree with Mo. all you'll get on this section is 'he wouldn't have lasted a round with Pacquiao'.

 

One of the two or three greatest fighters resume-wise.

There' a little footage of Langford exists - vs. Jeanette, Flynn and Lang - you can watch it on youtube.

 

He was a featherfisted, glass-jawed hypejob.

 

To sum up as brief as possible

at LW he beat gans
at WW he beat walcott (atleast that's my conclusion when reading info about the fight)
at MW he beat ketchel
at LHW he beat O'Brien
at HW he beat Wills

all them guys are either consensus top 20 greats or were the reigning champs.

He never got another title shot after the "draw" with walcott. his fight with gans was a couple of pounds above the limit.

To put it into context, imagine a 17 year old beating marquez at say 139 pounds, being robbed against floyd at 147, beating martinez in a non title fight, beating hopkins at 180 and then knocking out povetkin. Oh and 6 years later he returns to the ring, fully blind, yeah that's right FULLY BLIND and knocks out cold a future champion (Flowers would defeat the great harry greb)

As unthinkable as all that sounds, this man did it.

I have to drag myself away from the keyboard because, no offence, but the general doesn't deserve posts like this because it'll get **** on by people with no appreciation of boxing history.

Read Clay Moyle's book.

 

Old timer hype job

 

Asking in the General is a bit of a dead end, people like LUF stick to the classic mostly because you get alot more sense.

Most guys on the General started watching Boxing when Pacquaio beat Clottey.