The Best of the Rest: 160lbs Tier II Tournie - Round 1 - Fight 1: Ken Overlin UD15 Hugo Kelly

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. Ten points must. Weigh in is 18 hours before the fight.

I'll only vote if it's tied, then I'll decide the result.

Round of Thirty-Two Fight 1: Hugo Kelly vs Ken Overlin


HUGO KELLY (34-10-21; Newspaper Decisions 5-2-1)
The level of competition met by the unheralded Hugo Kelly is absurd. It may be that no fighter in the tournament tangled consistently at such an elevated level and this must be borne in mind when considering the dozen losses and numerous draws on his professional record.

Born Ugo Micheli in Florence, Italy, Kelly’s family arrived upon the wave of humanity that crashed on the shores of the United States in time for his debut to be fought in his adopted home of Chicago in the last year of the old-world’s century, 1899. He was 18 years old.

Four years later he met the much more experienced Philadelphia Jack O’Brien at 158 pounds, signaling the beginning of what would be an assault upon the best fighters of as stacked a middleweight division as has been assembled. The result was a disputed draw, the Indianapolis Journal reporting that Kelly perhaps deserved the victory; underwhelming, perhaps, as promulgation, until it is considered that in the next six months O’Brien would knock out Jack “Twin” Sullivan and Kid Carter, before boxing a draw with light-heavyweight contender Charles “Kid” McCoy. O’Brien was on stellar form and that was reflected when he took a decision from Kelly over six as a part of this excellent run. But Kelly kept coming; in 1905 he got the decision many believed he deserved in 1903, behind after six but rallying brilliantly despite O’Brien’s persistent fouling.

With this victory came the poisoned chalice of a middleweight title claim. Nobody really took Kelly too seriously as a champion. Two draws followed with future HW champion Tommy Burns, Kelly getting the better of the first, Burns getting the better of the second; more draws followed with Jack “Twin” Sullivan, the great Tommy Ryan and the lethal Billy Papke. Probably deserving of the win in at least one of his two contests with Sullivan, the Ryan match seemed an even draw, Kelly dominating the opening rounds and Ryan fighting back aggressively to salvage a deserved share. The wild, 10-round draw with Papke was described in one newspaper as the “fastest, bloodiest and cleverest fight that was ever witnessed in a Milwaukee ring.” Both men visited the canvas, and the decision was “well received.”

Although Kelly did not win many in what must have seemed his prime run, he had now gone undefeated against former pound-for-pounder Jack Sullivan, future world heavyweight champion Tommy Burns, future world middleweight champion Billy Papke, future world light-heavyweight champion “Philadelphia” Jack O’Brien and a number of other worthies and wanderers.

But no mere mortal could survive in orbit around the blooming twin suns that were Billy Papke and Stanley Ketchel. Perhaps no fiercer pairing has ever existed in the same division at the same time and Kelly was swallowed up by them in 1908. However, despite suffering two devastating knockout losses, he came again, defeating future middleweight champion Frank Klaus, Tommy Sullivan and boxing another thrilling draw with the homicidal Papke, this time over 25 rounds.

Aggressive, determined and busy, Kelly seems a handful for anyone.

KEN OVERLIN (135-19-9)
If Ken Overlin could punch he wouldn't have made this tournament. A veteran of more than 160 contests he lost just nineteen, but even more astonishing is that he won 135 while scoring just twenty-three knockouts. This is a KO percentage rather less than that of Paul Malignaggi.

Despite this enormous handicap, Overlin defeated #2 contender Paul Pirrone, the coming George Black, ranked men Ben Brown and Al Quaill, Nate Bolden, strap-holder Ceferino Garcia, top five contender Steve Belloise, Al Hostak, the all-time great Ezzard Charles and the all-time great Fred Apostoli. Charles and Apostoli would both go on to get considerably better than they were when Overlin toyed with them, but the way he inflicted his left hand on two of the great boxers of that era was a fantastic endorsement for Overlin’s jab, which rarely let him down.

A strapholder rather than a defining champion, Overlin had his belt taken from him in preposterous circumstances, dropping a home-state decision to Billy Soose in a non-title fight in 1940; this positioned Soose for a 1941 shot at Overlin, who was robbed for a second time in a fight that so defied expectations that it led The New York Times to label Soose as appearing “******ed.” The political incorrectness of this remark aside, it was clear to most ringsiders that Overlin deserved the decision. The fact that many of his finest victories, including that schooling of Ezzard Charles, came after these apparent twin-robberies it is fair to speculate as to what sort of champion Overlin might have become if he had been allowed to obtain the type of seniority that comes with championship longevity; that it was not to be is perhaps one of middleweight history’s greatest injustices.

 

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Robert, you went first, I will not forget it.

 

no. People will completely run out of interest by lightweight, it's not 2010. And I really might not get as far as lightweight. But here, we are, doing middleweight, the glory!

 

@robert ungurean YOU DIDN'T VOTE WTF

 

One vote on the first day, need some more gents. I know it's hard. Get hard!

 

7 posts no votes!

 

No a lot of love for Hugo. I get it. No footage and a bit of a fifth wheel, but it's worth remembering that he was fifth wheel in a stacked era. He turned away future HW champ Tommy Burns twice, lost just one of five to Jack Sullivan, twice beat Frank Klaus, and once he hit his stride he only really lost to absolutely elite fighters.

I've very little doubt he would set someone like Overlin serious, serious problems.

 

Ken Overlin became the first man to progress to the second round with a lopsided fifteen round decision over Hugo Kelly. It was expected that Kelly would make use of the inside, where his workrate and aggression were expected to spring fruit, but referee جوني بواجز repeatedly broke the men apart even as Kelly tried to work, although it did appear to be the case that Kelly favoured holding Overlin's near arm while he punched. Additionally, Overlin himself proved adept at moving Kelly into holds in what was a less than satisfying spectacle. Meanwhile, a short right hand of unerring consistently stung Kelly repeatedly and even had the smaller man holding on in the thirteenth.