Is Sam Langford The G.O.A.T?

[GJC]

I remember reading about an Austrialian middleweight who was considered a phenom. While still a teen-ager he was beating ranked middleweights. He comes to the US during WWI and the newspapers ridicule him for evading the draft calling him the a "slacker." The slacka from down-unda. He can't get a fight in the US and dies at 21 or so from pneumonia.

That would be Les Darcy

[GJC]

No.......Maybe if he wasn't born in an era full of bigots and ****s he might well be

Lol brutal but very true.
Difficult to think of another fighter who beat the quality of fighters at the range of weights, Gans at LW, Ketchel at MW and Wills at HW that Langford did and never got a shot.
Langford's career is a stain on boxing and it is great that sites like these keep his and others names alive and that they get the recognition now that they deserve.

[stefl14]

Not the greatest of all time. But one can only guess what success he could have gotten. Unfortunately for him he was born in a time where world titles were mostly reserved for whites.

[Southpaw Great]

http://coxscorner.tripod.com/langford.html

[Joey Giardello]

Good answer.

There are several genius boxers whose potential was stifled. Langford, Gans, Ike Williams, Ezzard Charles, Charley Burley and even Harry Greb all spring to mind.

Of those I've listed, with the exception of Williams, they all had the potential to win titles in multiple weight classes, but were denied the title shots they deserved because they were considered to be just too talented and the title holders avoided them.

Langford and Burley were the two worst affected by this.

lets not forget holman williams