sam langford?

[CaRnAgEViOLaToR]

how great was this guy?

from what ive read, he was a pretty crazy and ballsy guy fighting everyone from lightweight to heavyweight. he was ducked alot and was never given a shot at the heavyweight title. he knocked out guys bigger than him on a regular basis. of coruse boxers then werent as good as now but i find langfords story and career really fascinating. what u think?

[StarshipTrooper]

how great was this guy?

from what ive read, he was a pretty crazy and ballsy guy fighting everyone from lightweight to heavyweight. he was ducked alot and was never given a shot at the heavyweight title. he knocked out guys bigger than him on a regular basis. of coruse boxers then werent as good as now but i find langfords story and career really fascinating. what u think?

He was as good as you've heard. Pound 4 pound there were few better.

Poet

[warp1432]

There any video of him?

[Hearnsz]

Check out this thread:

http://www.boxingscene.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200513

Alot of great research about Sam Langford done here.

In very very short: He was a 170cm boxer who went from lightweight to heavyweight being ducked by Jack Johnson. He even knocked heavyweights out while being much much lighter. By many people he is considered the greatest P4P/heavyweight of all time.
Apparantly he got ALOT of respect in the old day. More than Ali even.

[StarshipTrooper]

There any video of him?

Go to this thread:

http://www.boxingscene.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145497&page=6

"Various Fighters I" has two clips of Langford fighting.

Poet

[TheGreatA]

There any video of him?

Only two videos from what I know, and both very bad quality.

The Fireman Flynn fight has lots of clinches but Langford can be seen landing many combinations of uppercuts and Flynn is knocked out at the end.
The other one is decent quality until the film is ruined and it's hard to see what happens when the opponent is KO'd.

It's amazing that Langford fought men who were champions from the lightweight division up to the heavyweight division but never got an official title shot himself.
Joe Gans, Joe Walcott, Stanley Ketchel, Tiger Flowers, Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, Jack Johnson, all were champions, not to mention avoided heavyweights such as Harry Wills, Sam McVea, Joe Jeannette and Kid Norfolk.


Langford vs Flynn

[Yogi]

According to some like Clay Moyle (who has recently wrote a book on Langford) a filmed fight between Langford & Jeannette from 1913 has survived to this day, although it is very, very rare, only owned by a select few collectors, and not liable to be viewed by the rest of us at any time in the near future.

[Mafcherano]

Could they have given him a more racist name than Boston Tar Baby? What a disgrace. Geoges Carpentier also fought from lightweight to heavyweight and won a few world titles along the way. Check him out if you like black and white.