Which fighters said hit them the hardest ?

[Caractacus]

Jack Dempsey had said not too long after the second fight with Gene Tunney
Chicago September 1927

"The right hand punch under the heart that Tunney hit me when he got
off the floor in the seventh round, was the hardest blow I have ever received.
It was not a question in my mind of being knocked out-I thought I was
going to die. I could not get my breath.
A second rubbed away the congestion around my heart when I came
back to my corner: but for that, I would not have been able to come out for the eight round".

source A MAN MUST FIGHT by gene Tunney ( page 280)

[bennie]

McGuigan - just done his book again - says that Juan Laporte was the only guy that put him on queer street.
Just finished Cyclone My Story (again) which is a really superb read and beyond the ring wars.

I might have posted on this earlier up the thread so apologies.

But this crossroads meeting of past and future featherweight kingpins in Belfast in 1985 was a brutal experience for Barry who freely admits that Laporte cracked him so hard he was dreaming about his childhood for a few seconds.

McGuigan somehow stayed upright and basically got an ice-bucket dumped on his head and managed to recover and win a belting fight.

But he is very clear that it was only Laporte that hit him so hard and bang on the button so that he did not know what he was doing for a while and other fights (even losses) were less frightening.

Just been listening to Barry being interviewed on Ringside Rewind, he once again said Laporte was the hardest he'd been hit and after the punch landed he thought he was in his mums shop lol. He named the second hardest as an amateur called Tumat Sogolik who apparently almost took his head off.

Tumat Sogolik is from Papua New Guinea, a beautifully built bantamweight who blitzed his way to the final of the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Canada where he met a 17-year-old McGuigan. "I was too courageous", says Barry in his book. "I should have been smarter, and not tried to fight with him so much. He caught me twice, put me down once and made me take one standing eight count. It was an iffy decision. I was lucky - one of the few times I had the luck with me."

[cfang]

Barry would have beat Cruz easily under different circumstances. The whole thing a total mess. Shound have stayed in Belfast or fought in New York. Ridiculous decision to fight that guy, at that time in that place. Was a nothing fight too. Cost them millions.

I just read this in Sugar Ray Robinson's 1970 autobiography SUGAR RAY.

Concerning his first two fights with Jake LaMotta
first fight was in October 1942 ,Robinson's 36th pro fight (27 by KO)
(in which LaMotta had 10 pounds on him)
Sugar Ray Robinson was hitting LaMotta with so many punches his arms were getting weary (which rarely happened)
Robinson was thinking "Man, he has fall any moment now"
But not the Bull,
"his head popped up and he let go a left hook that almost tore through my stomach.
It hurt so much I had tears in my eyes, like a kid.
I got the decision but I learned that Jake La Motta was some animal"
in the second fight a few months later (February 1943-Robibson's 43rd pro fight)
"IIn the Eighth round, he did something nobody had ever done to me before.
He hit me with a right hand in my mid-section and when I doubled up,he let go a left hook to my jaw.
For the first time in my career,I had no legs.I sagged through the ropes and onto the ring apron and sprawled there.
In my daze I could here the referre Sam Hennnessy counting"...Six....Seven...Eight.."
I made it back into the ring In time."

I need to read this book.
I'm quite well read wrt heavyweight literature and almanacs (and boxing sociology), but this is one I haven't read yet.

[cfang]

The it’s the same for both guys isn’t really right. Some conditions favour some fighters and it’s like they gave away all their advantages there. Poor business really. Cruz could hit and wasn’t bad but he’d just be another opponent for mcguigan in Belfast for example.

Guys, I was a starry eyed McGuigan fan in those days. I would have loved to have been at one of his fights. But, let’s be real here. Cruz had his chance and he took it. It was hot for him and all.

Barry did retire young. I think it was the way he fought. He never stopped pressing, it probably burnt him out. Although he was pretty much unstoppable until then.

[Noxy]

The it’s the same for both guys isn’t really right. Some conditions favour some fighters and it’s like they gave away all their advantages there. Poor business really. Cruz could hit and wasn’t bad but he’d just be another opponent for mcguigan in Belfast for example.

Guys, I was a starry eyed McGuigan fan in those days. I would have loved to have been at one of his fights. But, let’s be real here. Cruz had his chance and he took it. It was hot for him and all.

Barry did retire young. I think it was the way he fought. He never stopped pressing, it probably burnt him out. Although he was pretty much unstoppable until then.

You don’t know that and it was the same for both fighters. Nobody gave Steve a chance going into that fight, me included. It was a right shocker.

[Bodyshot3]

Cruz was so dangerous because he was a late-ish subsitute but also a very good one and unknown to McGuigan.

Barney Eastwood had put everything on this live US TV date and was not for moving, good for the finances but bad for McGuigan and this was the cause of their long and exceptionally bitter fall out.

The lad from Papua New Guinea was a good shout, McGuigan definitely mentions him and of course there was Laporte.

I've read Calazaghe's book a few times and he was pretty clear that it was Eubank Senior - whilst not landing grandstand shots - who was the one guy where he Joe feeling the pain and got rattled.

[bennie]

Cruz was so dangerous because he was a late-ish subsitute but also a very good one and unknown to McGuigan.

Barney Eastwood had put everything on this live US TV date and was not for moving, good for the finances but bad for McGuigan and this was the cause of their long and exceptionally bitter fall out.

The lad from Papua New Guinea was a good shout, McGuigan definitely mentions him and of course there was Laporte.

I've read Calazaghe's book a few times and he was pretty clear that it was Eubank Senior - whilst not landing grandstand shots - who was the one guy where he Joe feeling the pain and got rattled.

McGuigan probably hates Fernando Sosa of Argentina. The Irishman was due to defend against Sosa in early 1986 in Dublin but Sosa broke a finger in training and they brought in Danilo Cabrera of the Dominican Republic, a man who made McGuigan look pretty ordinary up to the 14th round when the champion finally came through. Then McGuigan was due to defend against Sosa again in Las Vegas in June 1986 but Sosa pulled out with eye problems and in came that man Cruz.
I don't think a major show has ever disappointed me more. I was rooting for Barry, of course, but a disastrous last round cost him the decision. The great Roberto Duran also ran out of gas on the show and dropped a decision to Robbie Sims. Thomas Hearns, after a bright start, looked horribly flat against a plodding New Yorker by the name of Mark Medal. All in all, it was night to forget.

[hhaehre]

Cruz was so dangerous because he was a late-ish subsitute but also a very good one and unknown to McGuigan.

Barney Eastwood had put everything on this live US TV date and was not for moving, good for the finances but bad for McGuigan and this was the cause of their long and exceptionally bitter fall out.

The lad from Papua New Guinea was a good shout, McGuigan definitely mentions him and of course there was Laporte.

I've read Calazaghe's book a few times and he was pretty clear that it was Eubank Senior - whilst not landing grandstand shots - who was the one guy where he Joe feeling the pain and got rattled.

McGuigan probably hates Fernando Sosa of Argentina. The Irishman was due to defend against Sosa in early 1986 in Dublin but Sosa broke a finger in training and they brought in Danilo Cabrera of the Dominican Republic, a man who made McGuigan look pretty ordinary up to the 14th round when the champion finally came through. Then McGuigan was due to defend against Sosa again in Las Vegas in June 1986 but Sosa pulled out with eye problems and in came that man Cruz.
I don't think a major show has ever disappointed me more. I was rooting for Barry, of course, but a disastrous last round cost him the decision. The great Roberto Duran also ran out of gas on the show and dropped a decision to Robbie Sims. Thomas Hearns, after a bright start, looked horribly flat against a plodding New Yorker by the name of Mark Medal. All in all, it was night to forget.

Yeah, I remember that Duran-Sims fight. As a huge Duran fan I was delighted early as Duran easily handled Sims, but then he got tired in the middle rounds. Would have been a draw if not for a low blow deduction.

[bennie]

Cruz was so dangerous because he was a late-ish subsitute but also a very good one and unknown to McGuigan.

Barney Eastwood had put everything on this live US TV date and was not for moving, good for the finances but bad for McGuigan and this was the cause of their long and exceptionally bitter fall out.

The lad from Papua New Guinea was a good shout, McGuigan definitely mentions him and of course there was Laporte.

I've read Calazaghe's book a few times and he was pretty clear that it was Eubank Senior - whilst not landing grandstand shots - who was the one guy where he Joe feeling the pain and got rattled.

McGuigan probably hates Fernando Sosa of Argentina. The Irishman was due to defend against Sosa in early 1986 in Dublin but Sosa broke a finger in training and they brought in Danilo Cabrera of the Dominican Republic, a man who made McGuigan look pretty ordinary up to the 14th round when the champion finally came through. Then McGuigan was due to defend against Sosa again in Las Vegas in June 1986 but Sosa pulled out with eye problems and in came that man Cruz.
I don't think a major show has ever disappointed me more. I was rooting for Barry, of course, but a disastrous last round cost him the decision. The great Roberto Duran also ran out of gas on the show and dropped a decision to Robbie Sims. Thomas Hearns, after a bright start, looked horribly flat against a plodding New Yorker by the name of Mark Medal. All in all, it was night to forget.

Yeah, I remember that Duran-Sims fight. As a huge Duran fan I was delighted early as Duran easily handled Sims, but then he got tired in the middle rounds. Would have been a draw if not for a low blow deduction.

The sight of a desperate, exhausted Duran in the late rounds is hard to watch but the point deduction does provide a moment of levity because, from memory, Duran deliberately goes low but as he does so, Sims tags him with a short southpaw left and Duran goes down. Referee Mills Lane misses the knockdown and deducts a point for the low blow.

[Caractacus]

I read this paragraph on page 11 in the book IRON AMBITION by Mike Tyson (2017).
It is about the first time Mike Tyson (age 13) ever put on a pair of boxing gloves
when he had been sent to the Tryon Reform School and to the Elmwood Cottage dorm there in New York State,
in the Fall of 1979 and shortly after meeting Bobby Stewart.
who was 28 yrs old and a former Golden Gloves light-Heavyweight Boxing Champion and had 14 pro fight
( managed by Jim Jacobs)

"We started boxing and I thought I was doing well, because he was covering up and I was getting
some punches in. Suddenly he came out of a clinch and the motherf*cker (Bobby Stewart)
hit me in the stomach and I went down.
I had never felt pain like that before in my life.
I felt like I was ready to throw up everything I had eaten for the last two years.
I got right up but I couldn't breath.
"Walk it off", he barked "Walk it off".
I got my air back and we started boxing again When we finished, I asked him if he could teach me how to punch a guy in the stomach like that.
That was going to be my robber punch"
( for when he got back to Brownsville in Brooklyn)

[Caractacus]

[Caractacus]

Monroe Brooks ( who once fought Roberto Duran)
had said the hardest puncher he had ever faced was Rudy Barro.
he said Rudy Barro hit like a truck, No, make that ,he hit like a :Mack Truck !"

https://boxrec.com/en/box-pro/372

[bennie]

Monroe Brooks ( who once fought Roberto Duran)
had said the hardest puncher he had ever faced was Rudy Barro.
he said Rudy Barro hit like a truck, No, make that ,he hit like a :Mack Truck !"

https://boxrec.com/en/box-pro/372

Barro is a blast from the past. He mixed it with everyone in the 1970s and made an appearance at the Albert Hall in 1977 against reigning British light-welterweight champion Colin Powers. He was generally outboxed over the course of the 10-rounder but hurt Powers in the seventh round and again in the last. Powers hung on to take a decision.

[Caractacus]

-November 1974-

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-1962-