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I'm sure all of you guys have heard the tales of the power Langford possessed, the purpose of this thread is to get a gauge of how powerful this man really was, and if he deserves his legendary status.
The Ring Magazine ranked Sam Langford as only second to Joe Louis on their list of all time power hitters an incredible award. Beating great punchers such as Ketchel, Foreman, Moore, Wilde and Fitzsimmons.
Their is also many legends of Langfords power(most coupled with his skill), most of these however cannot be traced or are traced to more than one fight. They are most likely true but, there is no way of ever knowing.
Some of these stories include:
It was early in the fight and as he went out for a new round to take place Sam touched his opponents gloves, his opponent confused replied "This isn't the last round Sam" Sam, without missing a beat replied "it is for you."
Before a fight Langford asked his seconds to measure up his opponent, after doing so. He then moved over to a section of the ring and asked them to put the tape down. Once they had done that, he asked his corners to make chalk markings in this area the same size and width as his opponent. The crowd was perplexed but, it became apparent what was going on after Langford knocked out the opponent, and he landed in the exact spot he had marked had had marked down.
Another few stories, which have been confirmed and can be traced to certain fights are as follows.
Before the first Flynn fight(I'll confirm this later) Flynn's manager was rambling on about how "My great fighter could never be beaten by a ******" During the fight Langford skilfully manoeuvred Flynn towards the ropes in front of his manager, knocked out Flynn who fell on his managers lap to which Langford quipped "Here's your great fighter."
Langford was asked to use special white gloves against the Lang in their fight. This was in a bid to help Lang win as the judges would see the white gloves land more clearly on Langfords darker skin. This wasn't needed as Lang lost by DQ(presumably in an attempt not to get KO'd) but, during the duration was pounded by Langford and touched the canvas more than once. After the fight, Langford noticed his punches weren't having the usual effect, and ripped open the gloves and found the usual horsehair padding had been replaced by rabbit fur. Although he was still able to destroy the decent chinned and much heavier Lang. The referee he was happy it ended on a foul, as he though Lang could have been seriously hurt.
Here is footage of this first 2 rounds of this fight.
We also have video evidence of Langfords power, him making a ragdoll of decent chinned Lang as mentioned earlier, making the very tough Jeanette into a human yo-yo and him pounding the average chinned Flynn into submission.
A compilation of all these fights, and the highlights is in the following video.
Too analyse his power, we can also view Langford's record which also indicates his power. His overall record(boxrec) comes to 178 official contests with 129 knockouts. This value expressed as a percentage, gives him a total knockout percentage of: 72%. only a bit lower than Louis' which comes to 78%. Also, when making these values. You have to take into account potential carrying on Langford's part, this is (arguably) more likely from Langford than any other champion in history.
When you include who is included in those knockout victories, it's even more atonishing knocking out many iron chinned fighters, while weighing much less. As mentions earlier he KO'd on numerous occasions(so it was no fluke) the very tough, durable and chinned Joe Jeanette while weighing much less, the same can be said for Sam McVey and Harry Wills. The latter who was KO'd when Langford was fat and blind.
There is also accounts from other fighters, my favourite being the ones Willis gave, about his knockout defeats to Sam Langford.
"I still don't know what punches Sam used to knock me out. When the fourteenth began I was going easy. Sam was in a bad way. I backed him around the ring trying to set him up for a one punc hfinish. His eye was bleeding and the last thing I remember was having him against the ropes just about 5 feet from the corner, It must have happened then"
"In the 18th Sam was in a peck of trouble and when the bell sounded for the 19th I was after him again. I figured if I could get him into the corner I could finish the fight. That was all I could remember. He must have caught me as I rushed in. I don't know how long I was unconcious but, it must have been quiet a while."
Sam Langford was also shamefully avoided by Johnson who stated:
"I'm not fighting against that little smoke, he has a chance against anybody"
The bolded part of that statement indicates that Jack respected Sam's power, and felt it was large enough to KO any human being.
In conclusion I feel Langfords power is definitely not over-rated and he deserves to be up there with Ketchel, Louis and co. If not besting them.
Barnburner.
The Ring Magazine ranked Sam Langford as only second to Joe Louis on their list of all time power hitters an incredible award. Beating great punchers such as Ketchel, Foreman, Moore, Wilde and Fitzsimmons.
Their is also many legends of Langfords power(most coupled with his skill), most of these however cannot be traced or are traced to more than one fight. They are most likely true but, there is no way of ever knowing.
Some of these stories include:
It was early in the fight and as he went out for a new round to take place Sam touched his opponents gloves, his opponent confused replied "This isn't the last round Sam" Sam, without missing a beat replied "it is for you."
Before a fight Langford asked his seconds to measure up his opponent, after doing so. He then moved over to a section of the ring and asked them to put the tape down. Once they had done that, he asked his corners to make chalk markings in this area the same size and width as his opponent. The crowd was perplexed but, it became apparent what was going on after Langford knocked out the opponent, and he landed in the exact spot he had marked had had marked down.
Another few stories, which have been confirmed and can be traced to certain fights are as follows.
Before the first Flynn fight(I'll confirm this later) Flynn's manager was rambling on about how "My great fighter could never be beaten by a ******" During the fight Langford skilfully manoeuvred Flynn towards the ropes in front of his manager, knocked out Flynn who fell on his managers lap to which Langford quipped "Here's your great fighter."
Langford was asked to use special white gloves against the Lang in their fight. This was in a bid to help Lang win as the judges would see the white gloves land more clearly on Langfords darker skin. This wasn't needed as Lang lost by DQ(presumably in an attempt not to get KO'd) but, during the duration was pounded by Langford and touched the canvas more than once. After the fight, Langford noticed his punches weren't having the usual effect, and ripped open the gloves and found the usual horsehair padding had been replaced by rabbit fur. Although he was still able to destroy the decent chinned and much heavier Lang. The referee he was happy it ended on a foul, as he though Lang could have been seriously hurt.
Here is footage of this first 2 rounds of this fight.
We also have video evidence of Langfords power, him making a ragdoll of decent chinned Lang as mentioned earlier, making the very tough Jeanette into a human yo-yo and him pounding the average chinned Flynn into submission.
A compilation of all these fights, and the highlights is in the following video.
Too analyse his power, we can also view Langford's record which also indicates his power. His overall record(boxrec) comes to 178 official contests with 129 knockouts. This value expressed as a percentage, gives him a total knockout percentage of: 72%. only a bit lower than Louis' which comes to 78%. Also, when making these values. You have to take into account potential carrying on Langford's part, this is (arguably) more likely from Langford than any other champion in history.
When you include who is included in those knockout victories, it's even more atonishing knocking out many iron chinned fighters, while weighing much less. As mentions earlier he KO'd on numerous occasions(so it was no fluke) the very tough, durable and chinned Joe Jeanette while weighing much less, the same can be said for Sam McVey and Harry Wills. The latter who was KO'd when Langford was fat and blind.
There is also accounts from other fighters, my favourite being the ones Willis gave, about his knockout defeats to Sam Langford.
"I still don't know what punches Sam used to knock me out. When the fourteenth began I was going easy. Sam was in a bad way. I backed him around the ring trying to set him up for a one punc hfinish. His eye was bleeding and the last thing I remember was having him against the ropes just about 5 feet from the corner, It must have happened then"
"In the 18th Sam was in a peck of trouble and when the bell sounded for the 19th I was after him again. I figured if I could get him into the corner I could finish the fight. That was all I could remember. He must have caught me as I rushed in. I don't know how long I was unconcious but, it must have been quiet a while."
Sam Langford was also shamefully avoided by Johnson who stated:
"I'm not fighting against that little smoke, he has a chance against anybody"
The bolded part of that statement indicates that Jack respected Sam's power, and felt it was large enough to KO any human being.
In conclusion I feel Langfords power is definitely not over-rated and he deserves to be up there with Ketchel, Louis and co. If not besting them.
Barnburner.
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