Standing no more than 5' 7" tall, Sam Langford was one of the 20th
century's greatest fighters. In 1951, the great featherweight
champion Abe Attell was asked if Sugar Ray Robinson was the best of
all time, either as a welterweight or middleweight. He named
Stanley Ketchel as the greatest welterweight he'd ever seen and
said that, as for the middleweights, he'd take Sam Langford, "the
greatest of them all at that poundage." Remarkably, the man Attell
felt was the greatest middleweight fighter in history fought and
defeated many of the leading heavyweight contenders of his day.
Over time, he matured physically and grew into a light heavyweight,
then began fighting heavyweights on a regular basis, but he was
almost always the much smaller of the two combatants. Nat
Fleischer, founding editor of The Ring magazine, called Sam one of
the hardest punchers of all time, and ranked the little man seventh
among his personal all-time favorites "Sam was endowed with
everything. He possessed strength, agility, cleverness, hitting
power, a good thinking cap, and an abundance of courage He feared
no one. But he had the fatal gift of being too good, and that's why
he often had to give away weight in early days and make agreements
with opponents. Many of those who agreed to fight him, especially
of his own race, wanted an assurance that he would be merciful or
insisted on a bout of not more than six rounds." Other leading
sportswriters of that era had even higher opinions of Sam. Hype
Igoe, well known boxing writer for the New York Journal, proclaimed
Sam the greatest fighter, pound-for-pound, who ever lived. Joe
Williams, respected sports columnist of the New York World Telegram
wrote that Langford was probably the best the ring ever saw, and
the great Grantland Rice described Sam as "about the best fighting
man I've ever watched." At the time of Sam's induction into the
Boxing Hall of Fame (October 1955) he was the only non-champion
accorded the honor. Many ring experts considered Sam the greatest
pound-for-pound fighter in the history of boxing Under different
circumstances he might have been a champion at five different
weights: lightweight; welterweight, middleweight; light
heavyweight; and heavyweight. Blind and penniless at the end of his
life, Sam lived quietly in a private nursing home But when one
visitor expressed sympathy for his circumstances, Sam replied,
"Don't nobody need to feel sorry for old Sam. I had plenty of good
times. I been all over the world. I fought maybe 600 fights, and
every one was a pleasure " With 98 photographs and illustrations,
primarily from private collections.
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