3 underrated MW champions

[Expug]

I started a thread about Spider Webb a few months ago, but it had no legs.
He was a real good fighter.

[granberry]

Georgie Abrams lost hard fought decisions to Tony Zale, Marcel Cerdan, and Sugar Ray Robinson when each was at their best. Each had to get past him in order to get their chance at the title.


GEORGIE ABRAMS vs. SUGAR RAY ROBINSON

Ken Overlin, when he was on the downgrade of his career, beat Ezzard Charles.

Spider Webb was going great guns untile he ran into Gene Fullmer in his chance at the middleweight title.

Fullmer demonstrated his championship level by beating Webb thoroughly in that fight.

[granberry]

KID GAVILAN vs. RAY ROBINSON

[granberry]

GEORGIE ABRAMS vs. SUGAR RAY ROBINSON

[harrygreb]

amazing pics granberry. top man.

[My2Sense]

I don't think Zale and Cerdan are "underrated". I think Zale's name still gets tossed around a lot when the subject of great middleweights is mentioned. Cerdan certainly looks great on film (especially in his performance against Zale), but as has been pointed out, he didn't really prove himself against a lot of top tier contenders/champions in his career. He missed out on a shot to fight Henry Armstrong for the welterweight title when the war broke out. Zale is probably the only true great he beat in his career, and even if his loss to LaMotta was really a "fluke", he never did get the chance to show what he could've done to him in a rematch.

IMO, some examples of underrated middleweight champions are:
Dick Tiger
Teddy Yarosz
Freddie Steele
Fred Apostoli
Joey Giardello

I've already gone into detail on Tiger in another thread. Great resume, two-division champion.

Yarosz beat the likes of Billy Conn and Archie Moore in his career, and would've almost surely gone on to be a great champion, but his title reign was ended by a severe leg injury.

Steele looked like a helluva fighter too in his prime, but he was never the same after Apostoli was through with him (reportedly because of an injury).

Apostoili may have been the best middleweight of the '30s. He beat Steele, Solly Kreiger, Lou Brouillard, Marcel Thil, Melio Bettina, and a host of other good champions/contenders around at that time. He was in a lot of hard fights though (especially his two battles with Billy Conn), and he seemed to wear out pretty quickly. By the time he fought (and lost to) Tony Zale, he was past his best.

In general, I think the middleweight champions of the '30s are underrated, probably because no one of them was really able to distinguish himself from the rest of the pack.

[harrygreb]

i have never been one to trumpet joey giardello. for me his standing is where it is. a decent enough champ but certainly not a top ranker in the pantheon of all time middleweights.

[dr_devious]

Rodrigo Valdez is an underrated MW champion, and is completely overshadowed by Carlos Monzon