The Best of the Rest: 175lbs Tier II Tournie - Round 1 - 1: Paul Berlenbach UD 15 Joe Knight

What i've done is i've lifted top tiers out of my top fifty at the poundage, fiddled it a little bit to minimise (but not eliminate) guys with no footage and used the remaining 32 names to develop 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.

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 four days.

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

RULES: 15 rounds, 1950s rules and ref. Ten points must. Weigh-in is 18 hours before the fight.

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

Round of Thirty-Two Fight 1 - Paul "Astoria Assassin" Berlenbach vs Joe "Cairo Calamity" Knight

PAUL BERLENBACH (40-8-3; Newspaper Decisions 1-0-0)

Paul Berlenbach was one of light-heavyweight’s finest punchers, thirty-four of the forty-one victories he is credited with coming by way of knockout. He was a ring savage, easy to hit but almost impossible to dissuade, boasting a great chin and one of the most damaging body attacks of the era. A wonderful balance of strength and weakness raised him up onto the cross of great fights. These, Berlenbach delivered, and soon, beginning his terrible rivalry with Jack Delaney (already world class) in just his fifth month as a professional, losing in four rounds. “They practically ruined each other,” boxing correspondent Robert Edgreen would write in 1927, as Berlenbach’s career began to wind down. Practically, Berlenbach coming off the worse as Delaney’s stylistic approach proved the more sustainable, bringing him a clean victory in their desperate series. Berlenbach did have his moment though, successfully defending the world title he had ripped from Mike McTigue in May of 1925 against his nemesis in December of that same year. In the fourth, Delaney landed a “mule-kicking” right to Berlenbach’s jaw the effects of which rippled in the latter’s nervous system as late as the seventh when he seemed in immediate danger of losing his title, and would have in a more civilized era. Spared by the 1920s referee, Berlenbach battled back to drop Delaney in the twelfth and take the narrowest of decisions over the man who had already stopped him and who would stop him again; it was the most important win of his career.

Despite Delaney’s overall domination of him, Berlenbach didn’t suffer as badly with other world-class boxers. Young Stribling, like Delaney, could punch as well as box but he got little out of Berlenbach when they met in the summer of 1926. Berlenbach thrashed him, dishing out what was “the only real beating Stribling had ever taken in his life” according to his lifelong friend Milton Wallace. Frank Getty of United News described Stribling as “a punching bag” and rated him good for only two of the fifteen rounds. Berlenbach, so late to the theatre of pugilism, outhustled and outfought a man groomed for the ring since birth.

Berlenbach also “slaughtered” Battling Siki according to the New York Times, battered out Jimmy Slattery in eleven and out-pointed contender Tony Marullo and if his drop off was sharp, if he went from fistic catastrophe to past-it contender a little too swiftly to be ranked here with the true elite, it is beyond doubt that he deserves to be included in the prestigious company he finds himself in now.


JOE KNIGHT (103-19-11)

Despite being the beneficiary of alphabet-belt shenanigans that would make a 1980s heavyweight blush, southpaw Joe Knight never lifted the legitimate, lineal light-heavyweight title, although he did get his shot, in February of 1934. The incumbent champion was the eccentric and brilliant Max Rosenbloom, as perplexing a riddle as can be seen in the opposite corner for a light-heavyweight title fight. But Knight had already solved Rosenbloom two years earlier, defeating him over ten rounds in 1932 and he was neither intimidated nor bamboozled. Rather he marched calmly in and fed the champion a steady diet of hooks to the body, giving him a sizeable lead going into the eleventh according to the great Tommy Loughran, who was in attendance. Rosenbloom, who had named Knight “the second best light-heavyweight in the country”, was a king, however, and an experienced one. He finished the stronger, dominating the final two frames to salvage a draw and his title.

This in turn illuminates the second reason for Knight's shortage of historical impact: a certain lack of aggression even with a hurt opponent on the hook in an important fight. He let the superb Tony Shucco clamber off the deck to rescue a draw in 1935 and his failure to put away a hurt opponent cost him a loss in a rematch the following year; a similarly wounded Patsy Perroni was able to draw level on the cards in 1936. But for all that, Knight’s decade was a healthy and impressive romp through a tough crew of fighters, losing a series with Bob Goodwin, winning one with Rosenbloom, outworking numerous other solid professionals to rank among the ten best in the world.

It’s true that he lost nineteen, but given that he only won five of his last ten and twelve of his first twenty, those one-hundred wins built for the most part during a superb prime run earns him respect.

 

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I sense a violent exchange of body punches.

 

FFS do we have to immediately plough into a debate about race on page 1 of fight 1? Young Stribling has absolutely nothing to do with this, and nor does the racial heritage of Paul Berlenbach's opponents.

 

Oh, but I do.

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Me too; but I fear not, and there's definitely nothing floating about.

 

Yeah, I ripped a few guys out, but Knight remains. Should have taken him out really, thinking about it And left in someone people are a little more familiar with. Oh well, Knight for the SHOCK.