There was talk of heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, who was afraid to fight Harry Wills. Dempsey wrote in his autobiography, “There was one man I wouldn’t fight because I knew he would flatten me. I was afraid of Sam Langford.”
Langford was from Nova Scotia and moved to Boston, where he adopted the nicknames ‘the Boston Tar Baby’, ‘the Boston Terror’, and ‘The Boston Bonecrusher’. He had a record of 209-44-53 with 126 stoppages.
Though Langford never even fought for a world title, only for the World Colored Heavyweight Championship Jack Johnson held in 1906 and lost by a decisive fifteen-round decision.
Langford weighed 156 pounds and Johnson 185 pounds. After Johnson won the world title, knocking out James J. Jeffries in 1910, he said, “No attention will be paid to Sam Langford’s challenges by me. I do not consider he could give me a fight that would draw.”
When Johnson refused to give him a title shot, Langford claimed the World Colored Heavyweight Championship.
Heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, 50-4 with 39 stoppages, was known while receiving instructions from the referee before a match he would stare at his opponent and put the fear of hell in them.
Known to have one of the most powerful jabs, he once stopped Wayne Bethea, knocking out several of his teeth, ending that one in the first round.
Light Heavyweight champion Archie ‘Old Mongoose’ Moore, 186-23-10 with 132 stoppages, either held the most or second most knockouts. He dropped heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano in an attempt to win his title but couldn’t finish him off.
Middleweight Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, 27-12-1 with 19 stoppages, including one over the welterweight champion in a non-title bout Emile Griffith, may have a low percentage but a hard left hook in the first round.
Of course, who didn’t fear getting in the ring with ‘The Black Destroyer’ heavyweight Earnie Shavers, 76-14-1 with 70 stoppages?
Looking at the lower weights, Bantam and Feather world champion Mexico’s Ruben ‘El Puas’ Olivares, 89-13-3 with 79 stoppages, was one of the most feared little men.
Another heavyweight champion, ‘Big’ George Foreman, 76-5 with 68 stoppages, had a high stoppage percentage, as did Vitali ‘Dr. Ironfist Klitschko, 45-2 with 41 stoppages.
Another heavyweight champion, Deontay ‘The Bronze Bomber‘ Wilder, 43-4-1 with 42 stoppages. Though against weak opposition, heavyweight Lamar Clark, 43-3 with 42 stoppages, could be misleading.
I’m sure our readers will come up with some more names that I passed over and look forward to reading them.
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