Gene Fullmer was a man who made do with what he had. He was awkward as hell, and it was that awkwardness combined with incredible conditioning and toughness that overcame a lot of physically superior opponents and very skillful opponents.
Nothing he did was pretty. We all know that. But he was far more effective then you are giving him credit for. He wasn't a huggy bear. He was a real fighter.
And virtually nobody disagrees that the 1940s and 1950s welterweight and middleweight divisions were the golden age of boxing--- those two divisions were chock full of so much talent that we will most likely never see that again in our lifetimes or our kids lifetimes.
Now that doesn't automatically mean that everybody in that time period was great or good; there were bums too. But Gene Fulmer was not a bum, not by a long shot. You don't get close to the undisputed title, especially in those days, let alone win it unless you were the real deal--- or you were pushed by the mob (ie, Billy Fox) to cash in on bets, or you were a soft touch defense for somebody.
These days? Almost anyone can get ranked in the top 10. Almost anyone can get a belt. Almost anyone can get a multi-million dollar fight. And do it with virtually no experience or only fighting once a year.
In Fullmer's day people were fighting every week or at least once a month. So nobody can say people did not earn their spot or those titles, especially when the fights were longer and the gloves were smaller and the referees weren't so squeamish. Plus the fact there were far less weight classes which made it a bit more difficult all the way around.
