Was just doing some newspaper research on Charley Retzlaff and then came across his first defeat to Joe Sekyra, a good fighter. The amazing thing is Joe then fought Tommy Loughran 3 weeks later, then King Levinsky a week later,(he lost these two) then after another week Jim Braddock(won this one) and so on. Sekyra was 42-16-6 according to boxrec at the time of the Braddock contest, one of at least 50/100 similar light heavy/heavyweights that routinely fought one another 10-20 times a year. boxrec bears this out with the 1920's/30's having the most recorded fights despite the certainty that a big percentage of the fights from that era are not on record. It was like a permanent super six tournament. Unbelievable until you sift through it, top contenders, Europeans, lightheavies, SouthAmerican all mixing it up. Real depth which may have mitageted against the top tier having longevity.
Here is a list of these guys; Harry Greb Gene Tunney George Shade Jeff Smith Jimmy Delaney Ted Moore Johnny Wilson Jack Delaney Ad Stone "Young" Stribling Martin Burke Tony "Young" Marullo Emilio "King" Solomon Chuck Wiggins Yale Okun Georges Carpentier Martin Burke Chuck Wiggins Mike McTigue Jimmy Slattery Leo Lomski Joe Sekyra Pete Latzo Armand Emanuel Mickey Walker Jim Braddock Pierre Charles Jack Renault Dave Maier Max Baer "Tuffy" Griffith Victorio Campolo Jack Gross Joe Sekyra Paolino Uzcudun Stanley Poreda King Levinsky Walter Cobb Isidoro Gastanaga Steve Hamas Jack Sharkey Primo Carnera Walter Neusel Johnny Risko Jose Domingo Caratolli Arturo Godoy Al Ettore Eddie Simms Al Delaney Maurice Strickland Andre Lenglet Tommy Farr Ben Foord Al McCoy Ray Impellitiere "Sonny Boy" Walker. Check any of them out on boxrec, all from good to very good. Now the unbelievable part, thes are probably now a quarter of the talent 1925-35 because these are just my pick of the guys ONE FIGHTER TOMMY LOUGHRAN fought and he fought many of them multiple times. If you doubt this check out Rosenbloom, Jack Fox or many more. Its like every top 50 l/h, cruiser or Heavyweight fighting a fellow contender at least every month and for ten or more years.
Its quite funny when we can have a Super 6 now and back then they could have had a Super 60 tournament
Blacks like Hankinson, Fox, Haynes, Lewis, Walker, Toles, Gains, Godfrey,leo Kelly, Dave Clarke were some of the blacks that Loughran dodn't fight.
Hank Hankinson was white , he was a crude slugger, who dropped a couple of decs to Rosenbloom.Loughran would have embarrassed him,imo.
I have always argued that while the 30s lacked the great champions that characterise some era's, the overall talent pool was incredibly deep, and it was a verry unforgiving indeed brutal division to move up through.
yes, but those guys werent THAT good. today's guys are better, you know with modern training methods and nutrition and stuff.:roll:
