The Best of the Rest: 160lbs Tier II Tournie - Last 16 Fight 6: Rodrigo Valdez TKO10 Billy Papke

What i've done is i've lifted top tiers out of my top fifty at the poundage and organised them into a seeded tournament to uncover "the best of the rest" at the poundage, with you, the denizens of the world's greatest boxing history forum, casting the deciding vote. The difference between this middleweight tournament and the equivalent at 175lbs is that I've left ALL the guys with no footage in this time. I understand that makes things difficult and for some, frustrating but there are just far too many excellent and intriguing fighters from middleweight history. I understand this makes making a pick very hard, but i hope you'll still place a vote and make a post because obviously without your input the whole thing becomes meaningless.

Pick your man! Write however many details you like or don't in a post below. But maybe try to post, to keep things moving a little bit. You have three days.

And let's be nice. No reason for disagreeing over total fantasies after all!

15 Rounds, 1950s rules and ref, 18 hour weigh in. 10 points must. I'll only vote where there's a tie.

LAST SIXTEEN FIGHT 6: Billy Papke vs Rodrigo Valdez

BILLY PAPKE (37-11-5; Newspaper Decisions 3-6-1)
Billy Papke had to shoot himself in the heart three times to end his torrid life on Thanksgiving Day 1936, finally succumbing to the terrible disarray of his personal life. Once upon a time, he had boxed with a savagery fitting of the man he would become, the man who would slay his ex-wife before taking his own life, a man so brutal that he was able to take the great Stanley Ketchel apart at the seams so completely that some wondered if he would ever be put back together again.

Ketchel had already defeated Papke once in a torrid ten rounds in April of 1908; the litany of excuses he laid at the door of pressmen as he relentlessly pursued a rematch is typical of those adopted by a fighter. Ketchel meanwhile was standing on tiptoe and peering past his seething nemesis at the world heavyweight champion. Papke saw his chance, and if it was borne, as the legend holds, of a smash to Ketchel’s throat before the bell was rung, this is not reflected in any of the ringside reports I have seen. Instead these reports describe a fighter possessed in out-fighting, out-slugging, and, yes, out-boxing the ultimate furnace-bound middleweight Stanley Ketchel. Ketchel dominated their series 3-1, but Papke tore a primed Ketchel into punch sized pieces in their second encounter to become the middleweight champion of the world.

He was not given the opportunity to make any successful defences as a rampant Ketchel vanished into the desert and re-emerged to exact a terrible revenge just months later and, I suspect, broke Papke in the way some thought Papke had broken him. But he still did some good work, beating the likes of Willie Lewis, out of New York and sporting an excellent record when Papke blasted him out in just three; Joe Thomas, who held a newspaper decision over Frank Klaus, but who Papke stopped in the sixteenth round of a savage encounter in 1910; the excellent Dave Smith, who was unbeaten and would go on to defeat Battling Levinksy and Jimmy Clabby; an easy decision over former pound-for-pounder Jack “Twin Sullivan”, and many other worthies. He also went unbeaten in a four fight series with Hugo Kelly, and for all that he is defined by his other four fight series with Ketchel, achieved a superb resume.

RODRIGO VALDEZ (63-8-2)
Rodrigo Valdez was a come-to-fight brute with skill but was surprisingly light for elite scalps. Bennie Briscoe was the big scalp, beaten for a vacant lineal-title post-Monzon's retirement. Gratien Tonna was Valdez's number two victim, although this stoppage was a paramount of confusion, Tonna claiming he was hit on the break by a fighter who knew his title was in trouble. Furthermore, Tonna claimed that he was unhurt but stayed down only on the advice of his corner. Valdez, narrowly ahead at the time of the stoppage, added Rudy Robles, a tragically flawed fighter who was ranked at the time of their meeting based primarily upon a victory over Tony Mundine.

So Valdez was limited, but was yet another fighter who can be rated "a handful for anyone."

 

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People picking Rodrigo but not a single post!

 

Fergy in at the back post with a...post.

@Fergy, Papke has an iron jaw. Iron. Valdez is really the man to stop him?

 

That's true! And it's also true that iron jaws do get cracked every now and again. But what it took to crack Papke's chin was a sustained beating so vicious as to be notable in the most vicious of eras, at the hands of one of the era's most terrifying offensive machines.

So, I'm not saying it's impossible, i'm just questioning why the forum thinks Valdez is the man to repeat that feat. The equivalent would be something like picking Valdez to KO Dick Tiger or Jake LaMotta, and we both know that just wouldn't happen.

So really i'm just checking in to see what's brought this on, while suspecting it's "evolution of boxing" again.

 

Twenty-four hours for the forum to correct it's awful mistake!