Here's footage of McLarnin in what was considered one of the biggest and best wins of his career, against reigning LW champ Al Singer in a non-title fight: [yt]cMDBq20Ob2I[/yt] At this time, Singer was a very highly regarded fighter. He was touted as "the second coming of Benny Leonard," and he had fairly comparable style and talent as Leonard as well (not to mention he had been trained by Leonard). He had won the LW title by shockingly blasting out the "unknockoutable" HOFer Sammy Mandell in a single round :shock: (by contrast, McLarnin had been extended the distance three times by Mandell, and had lost the first fight). However, as this fight exposed, Singer lacked the toughness and resilience of his mentor, and that would be his downfall. The first two rounds of this fight were rather sloppy and undecisive, but that was to McLarnin's advantage - by simply letting his hands go and keeping the pressure on, he kept Singer on the back foot and unable to sit down on his punches or settle into a rhythm. McLarnin finally broke through with some big punches in the third round, and Singer quickly crumbled after that. This fight signaled the start of Singer's quick and sudden decline. After this, he lost his title when Tony Canzoneri blasted him out in a single round (making Singer the only champion in history whose title tenure began and ended on 1st round KOs), and he was again blasted out quickly by moving-up FW champ Battling Battalino.
McClarnin looks very solid and strong. He plants his feet when he lets his punches go. Singer kicking his feet when on the ground from the first knock down looks strange. I think he got the heart knocked out of him.
