Top 15 middleweights 1940-1950

Cerdan fought Williams and Abrams on the downsides of their careers and the AP had Williams Cerdan a Draw, in cerdan home turf.

Lamotta has already badly staggered cerdan before the knockout, was dominating cerdan

Zale - what is his record vs field of top competition? It’s not much because he missed out on practically everyone.

“Zale and Cerdan impress on film”

And Burley doesn’t?

 

Awful list

 

Your list became a joke the minute you placed graziano at number 2

 

From Steve Compton

The one interview I did which really stands out was with Alan Rosenfeld who wrote the book on Burley. Rosenfeld was ringside that night. He said that prior to the bout LaMotta was not given much of a chance by insiders who felt he was rapidly fading (which I partly agree with). He said LaMotta entered the ring with his leopard skin robe and when he took the robe off he looked like he was carved from stone. He said it electrified the crowd who now expected Cerdan to have a fight on his hands and that the audience all went "ooooh" in unison as the robe came off (they had not expected him to be in that great of condition). He stated that much has been made of Cerdan's shoulder injury but that what is rarely mentioned is that LaMotta was beating the hell out of Cerdan before the injury and that he was literally lifting him off the canvas with bodyshots (which was LaMottas specialty). He stated that he wasnt convinced by Cerdan's injury and even added that from his vantage point it looked like a half punch half push that sent Cerdan as opposed to the now accepted story that LaMotta wrestled him to the canvas. He closed by saying that he didnt think Cerdan would have beaten LaMotta that night with or without the injury.

Another guy I interviewed was Leon Thompson. He was an old fighter who fought out of Chicago and served as Zales sparring partner. He had sparred with Cerdan for the media prior to Cerdans bout with Zale, Anton Raadik, Jackie Conn, and several others. Decent club fighter. Anyway he didnt have much to add as we spoke more about Zale but he basically backed up what Rosenfeld said. He said he really liked Cerdan and that he was a nice guy (though he couldnt speak much english) but added that he didnt think Cerdan or Zale could have beaten LaMotta. I was surprised to hear him say that about Zale because he was really fond of Tony and kept in touch with him until Tony died. He was even kind of managed or at least helped a bit by Art Winch and Sam Piam (Zales handlers).

The Rosenfeld interview was from around 2004 maybe. The Thompson interview was around 1999 or 2000

 

Troll Alert

 

It is amazing how graziano spent his entire career fighting welterweights while weighing in at middleweight limit except when he cashed out against Zale and Robinson

Graziano has to go down as one of the most protected fighters of all time


I mean Lamotta beat up on welterweights but at least he fought and beat some good legit sized middleweights too like Lytell, Williams, Basora, Mitri, Cerdan, Villemain, and dauthille