Young Stribling Discussion

Very very heavily protected and carefully matched.

 

He has some official wins and "newspaper decision wins" over men who held the 175-pound title.
Loughran and Rosenbloom were no slouches.
Yes, he lasted into the 15th round against a good Max Schmeling.

I'd say he was pretty good.

 

Possibly a top twenty Light-Heavyweight of all time, albeit only by the skin of his teeth.

Not seen the Schmeling fight myself, but from my understanding Stribling was never really in it and it was a dull encounter even by his standards.

 

Stribling was hard to figure out. He was carefully matched, but had some ability. He also was in some fights that were likely fixed.

Others like Jim Corbett called him. “the best heavyweight fighter for his pounds that ever lived.”

His death was one of the saddest in the history of the ring. Just before he passed, I read he asked the doctor for a beer for some courage to die.

 

Very padded record but still to fight that many times is impressive and to only be stopped once is pretty remarkable. Only Schmeling turned the trick.

 

Two fixes with Carnera and a few kos over his chauffeur .but a decent fighter, good but not great I expect.

 

Elaborate.

 

He was never a Rear Admiral, me thinks. He flew planes. Army Air Reserve Corp. And which wars did he serve in? He would have been 13 for the US involvement in The Great War... and was dead 9 years before The Big One.

 

He wasn't protected. He just wasn't a hobo. He turned pro at 16, fought every other week or so, so he stuck close to home.

He faced: Max Schmeling, Jack Sharkey, Primo Carnera (twice), Maxie Rosenbloom (twice), Tommy Loughran (three times), Battling Levinsky, Paul Berlenbach (twice), Jimmy Slattery (twice), Mike McTigue (twice) ... along with top contenders Tuffy Griffiths, Phil Scott, Lou Scozza and Ernie Schaaf.

He faced eight Hall of Famers and scored seven wins against them. He scored nearly 130 knockouts in his 220+ wins.

When he was 28, he was involved in a motorcycle accident. He'd just left a golf course after playing a round of golf and an oncoming car tried to pass the automobile in front of it and drove head on into Stribling, who tried to swerve into a ditch on his right to avoid the car. But the car struck his left foot, which was nearly severed.

He nearly bled to death on the road, but a nurse stopped her car and applied a tourniquet.

He was rushed to the hospital where they amputated the foot. Max Schmeling sent a telegram saying: "I couldn't keep you on the canvas, Bill, and this won't either."

But Stribling died a few days later from his injury.

 

According to his record on BoxRec, Young Stribling had 291 bouts with only a very small percentage of them against top fighters. In fairness, Stribling didn't do badly against top fighters overall despite having his share of losses in such bouts. But I can't think of another top boxer of his era who fought such incredibly soft opposition in so many bouts.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Were there really 300 good to great fighters available during his career in his weight class? Logic dictates that many have to keep busy type of fights... I mean, the man had to draw a regular paycheck.

 

Yeah, he travelled around knocking over stiffs and set-ups in obscure tank towns. It was his job.
I wouldn't class that as being "protected". But I don't know the full details of his career, maybe he turned down some fights ??

He actually fought a decent number of name fighters too, and did okay against them too, having wins over men who were to become world champions.
He fought some rough customers like Chuck Wiggins and Jack Renault too.

 

Take a close look at the records of other top fighters besides Young Stribling who were active during the 1920s and 1930s. You will find a hard time finding one of them who had such a staggering percentage of their bouts with extremely soft opposition or with such a small percentage against good or great fighters as Stribling.

There may have not been 300 good or great fighters who were the same weight as Stribling during the 1920s and 1930s. But top fighters of that era often fought each other multiple times.

- Chuck Johnston