BoxRec

Bob Foster
Archie Moore
Leon Spinks
Ingemar Johansson


Everyone at their peak. What happens?

All these fights apart from Moore could go either way.

Moore might have to get off the floor, but wins on points or mid late stoppage.

The others would have to fight smart to beat him.

I'd probley make him a favorite over Spinks.

The Foster fight is a toss up and I'd make Bingo a slight favorite.

Knocks out Spinks and Foster; loses to Johansson and Moore.

Galento would get to Johansson at some point. He wouldnt withstand the licks the somewhat comparable (and far tougher) Baer did to win.

He would stop Foster, I think he might catch Ingo late. I'd actually slightly favor leon from the first Ali fight and Archie would kick his ass.

I think he has a chance with Archie. I'd say Galento wins two out of ten.

Ingo and Moore would beat him easily. If Spinks is focused he beats Galento. Foster-Galento is an interesting fight that I never would have thought of. Hard to say about that one.

I gotta throw in another match here. Carnera vs Galento.

Could Galento reach the giant? Or would Carnera's jab keep him at bay?

Might be a real pick'em.

By the way....they fought in the EXACT same time frame...how the hell did they miss each other?

Or did that fight happen? I definitely don't recall one.

It probably would have been a classic defensive chess match.

Why didn't they fight? I think the main reason is that they were not actually at the best at the same time. They each began their careers in 1928; however Carnera was 4 year older. He began fighting top fighters much sooner than Galento. Carnera was in the top 10 from 1929-1935. Galentio was still fighting almost all journeyman. Galento was not in the top 10 until 1937, when Carnera was winding down.

It's interesting to noe that even though they had a lot of fights, they actually don't have that many common opponents either.

Obviously they still could have fought; however if they were both top fighters at the same time it is more likely that they would have.

Ambling Alp wrote:It probably would have been a classic defensive chess match.

Ambling Alp wrote:It probably would have been a classic defensive chess match.

Why didn't they fight? I think the main reason is that they were not actually at the best at the same time. They each began their careers in 1928; however Carnera was 4 year older. He began fighting top fighters much sooner than Galento. Carnera was in the top 10 from 1929-1935. Galentio was still fighting almost all journeyman. Galento was not in the top 10 until 1937, when Carnera was winding down.

It's interesting to noe that even though they had a lot of fights, they actually don't have that many common opponents either.

Obviously they still could have fought; however if they were both top fighters at the same time it is more likely that they would have.

Fucken what!?

Goodnight, Irene wrote:

Ambling Alp wrote:It probably would have been a classic defensive chess match.

Why didn't they fight? I think the main reason is that they were not actually at the best at the same time. They each began their careers in 1928; however Carnera was 4 year older. He began fighting top fighters much sooner than Galento. Carnera was in the top 10 from 1929-1935. Galentio was still fighting almost all journeyman. Galento was not in the top 10 until 1937, when Carnera was winding down.

It's interesting to noe that even though they had a lot of fights, they actually don't have that many common opponents either.

Obviously they still could have fought; however if they were both top fighters at the same time it is more likely that they would have.

Fucken what!?

I'm pretty sure it was a joke, and a good one at that. Not to be confused with his usual unintentional hilarity.

They were two of the cerebral fighters of their day. A chess match it would be.

Both Galento and Carnera were Menza alumni.

yancey wrote:
Bob Foster
Archie Moore
Leon Spinks
Ingemar Johansson


Everyone at their peak. What happens?

Galento was essentially a puncher with journeyman like skills, and rule bending tactics. I think he has a puncher's chance in all the above matches, but I would not pick him to win any of them. Of coruse boxing doesn't work that way. If it did, favorites would win all the time. So I am giving Two Ton a " W " in one of these matches, and saying he would lose three.

That is a fair assessment his style and ability and what would probably happen. He would be an underdog against all 4, but if he actually fought all four, he is more likley to steal a win and go 1-3 then going 0-4.
I thought about this in a mathematical sense. I think if he would fight them all 10 times, he would go something like 1-9 vs Ingo and Moore, 3-7 vs Foster and Spinks. That would give him an overall record of of 8-32. That means he would win about 20% of the time. If he can win 20% of the time, he is more likely to go 1-3 then 0-4.

Ambling Alp wrote:That is a fair assessment his style and ability and what would probably happen. He would be an underdog against all 4, but if he actually fought all four, he is more likley to steal a win and go 1-3 then going 0-4.
I thought about this in a mathematical sense. I think if he would fight them all 10 times, he would go something like 1-9 vs Ingo and Moore, 3-7 vs Foster and Spinks. That would give him an overall record of of 8-32. That means he would win about 20% of the time. If he can win 20% of the time, he is more likely to go 1-3 then 0-4.

I would definitley make him a favorite vs Spinks and Foster. Spinks could barely beat Scott LeDoux, who RIP was just as "skilled" as Galento but without the one-punch KO power. Foster's chin always let him down vs any quality HW he fought, and I think Tony's awkward crouching style and pretty quick bursts of left hooks will catch Foster at some time and Bob will then be going to sleep.

Galento was not a great boxer by any means, but he did beat some guys who were highly skilled fighters, including Nathan Mann, Al Ettore, Leroy Haynes, Eddie Blunt, and Lou Nova (although to be fair, he should have lost to Nova by DQ). He had a very good chin, one punch KO power (57 knockout wins . . .more knockouts than the wide majority of fighters in recent years have pro fights in their entire career), awkward, aggressive, and would foul you enough to get guys off their gameplan. There were many instances of him getting behind on points but then suddenly ending the fight with the left hook late. Guys who didn't have great HW chins and lacked punching power at HW like Spinks and Foster style-wise play right into Galento's hands.

Galento's power is very overrated. He barely scored kos in half his fights. Considering that his competition is loaded with journeyman that is very unimpressive. If it was not for the brief knockdown against Louis he would barely be remembered at all.
It is true that Foster was 0-4 vs quality heavyweights. Galento was not a quality heavyweight. He would have been 0-4 vs Terrell, Folley, Ali and Frazier as well. Foster is remembered for losing badly to Ali and Frazier, but he was somewhat competitive against Folley and he beat some journeyman heavyweights.

Foster boxing skills were much, much better than Galento's. He probably could have avoided Galento wild swings and perhaps have weathered the storm if he had to. He would have huge height and reach advatanges which he knew how to exploit. Galento had vitrually no defense and Foster could jab him at will.

Spinks did struggle against Ledoux. However, that was in only his 6th pro fight. Ledoux was a lot tougher than Galento and whileobvioulsy not that skillful he had more skilfull than Galento. Spinks was still at the stage where he was improving greatly. His fights against Ali, Ball, Mercado, and Evangelista would have been good enough to beat Galento. Of course his career fell apart and Galento would have beaten him later on.

Ambling Alp wrote:Galento's power is very overrated. He barely scored kos in half his fights. Considering that his competition is loaded with journeyman that is very unimpressive. If it was not for the brief knockdown against Louis he would barely be remembered at all.
It is true that Foster was 0-4 vs quality heavyweights. Galento was not a quality heavyweight. He would have been 0-4 vs Terrell, Folley, Ali and Frazier as well. Foster is remembered for losing badly to Ali and Frazier, but he was somewhat competitive against Folley and he beat some journeyman heavyweights.

Foster boxing skills were much, much better than Galento's. He probably could have avoided Galento wild swings and perhaps have weathered the storm if he had to. He would have huge height and reach advatanges which he knew how to exploit. Galento had vitrually no defense and Foster could jab him at will.

Spinks did struggle against Ledoux. However, that was in only his 6th pro fight. Ledoux was a lot tougher than Galento and whileobvioulsy not that skillful he had more skilfull than Galento. Spinks was still at the stage where he was improving greatly. His fights against Ali, Ball, Mercado, and Evangelista would have been good enough to beat Galento. Of course his career fell apart and Galento would have beaten him later on.

Galento's power is over-rated? The unanimous opinion of those who saw him in person and who fought him was that his left hook was one of the hardest ever . . .he scored a knockout in around 70% of his wins, in a deep era in which he often fought several times a month.

Foster had good boxing skills but was not very slick. Galento beat guys who were bigger than Foster and who had better defense. Stick-figure Foster did not have the strength to keep Galento on the end of the jab for the full distance.

I would have loved to see Spinks bring his pressure, high volume but light-hitting style into Galento's wheelbarrow . . I'd be suprised if Leon lasted 3 rounds.

Every fighter mentioned apart from Foster and maybe Spinks would have beaten the shit out of Galento.

Foster's chin wasn't exactly the sturdiest as a heavyweight but getting stopped by Ali and Frazier is no disgrace. His ko loss to Terrell was early in his career also. Foster had an excellent jab and would have had a considerable height and reach advantage as well. Three of Galento's six career losses by stoppage were by cut so I could see Foster jabbing him nearly at will and busting him up. Galento had a pretty good punch so if they fought ten times I could see him getting to Foster's fairly weak chin a few times and pulling off some wins by ko otherwise it's Foster winning the majority of the time.

Moore soaked up a considerable amount of punishment before Marciano was finally able to stop him. Marciano landed more clean punches in the last three rounds of that fight than Galento would land in 15 vs. Moore.
I could see Galento scoring a knockdown at some point but what I can't see is him being able to string together enough follow up shots to get Moore out of there like Marciano did. Barring a fluke ko, Moore wins by clear decision or late round stoppage nearly every time.

Spinks wasn't a big puncher so I don't see him stopping Galento (except maybe by cuts). His best chance is to try to outwork him for a win by points. At his best and in top condition, which wasn't very often, I could see him out hustling Galento for a decision win. However I don't like Spinks weak chin and defense vs. Galento's solid punch. Galento could stand up to Spinks best shots, I doubt that Leon's chin could stand up to Galento's. Spinks probably outworks Galento and leads on points most of the time until he gets caught. Galento was rarely in what you would call top condition either so if they fought ten times Spinks would win more than a few but would lose more than he would win.

Johansson methodically picks Galento apart from the outside before he finally lines him up for his big right hand. Ingemar's chin wasn't the greatest so Galento has a punchers chance but I don't see Galento being as competitive vs. Johansson's best opposition (Patterson and Machen) as Ingemar was. Johansson wasn't always the most aggressive fighter in the world, (his fans would call it patient) so I could see Galento lasting for a while which would increase his chances of catching him with something. However I can't shake the image of Johansson eventually blasting the often easily hit Galento flush on the chin at some point with that straight right of his.

Carnera's chin wasn't as bad as people often make it out to be. Of his five losses by stoppage three were very late in his career and the other two were against young versions of Max Baer and Joe Louis. Carnera's massive height and reach advantage combined with his fairly competent jab allows him to keep the, short in any heavyweight era, Galento on the outside to allow him to pick up the win on points. Carnera could be hit and knocked down so I could see Galento winning some fights by catching Primo on the chin at some point and dropping him and throwing him off his fight plan by mauling and roughing him up on the inside. Any way that you look at it this would probably be a very ugly fight to watch.

That is almost exactly how I would see these fights going. He would have a chance vs Spinks and Foster but would lose more often than not. He would lose almost everytime to Johanson and Moore and it would be one-sided. Carnera would have beat him most of time.

A couple of things concerning what demspeyfire said. First the level of Galento's competition. I couldn't disagree more. It was god-awful for the most part. He did fight Baer and Louis, and got beaten badly.

2nd is the ko %. The practice of only counting only the fights that the fighter won as part of his ko %. That is a sleight of hand. You have to count every fight the figher had. (Except perhaps dq's wins.) A fighter had the chance to score a ko in the fights that loses. It's silly to not count it if he loses yet his % goes down if he wins by decision.

dempseyfire wrote:

Ambling Alp wrote:Galento's power is very overrated. He barely scored kos in half his fights. Considering that his competition is loaded with journeyman that is very unimpressive. If it was not for the brief knockdown against Louis he would barely be remembered at all.
It is true that Foster was 0-4 vs quality heavyweights. Galento was not a quality heavyweight. He would have been 0-4 vs Terrell, Folley, Ali and Frazier as well. Foster is remembered for losing badly to Ali and Frazier, but he was somewhat competitive against Folley and he beat some journeyman heavyweights.

Foster boxing skills were much, much better than Galento's. He probably could have avoided Galento wild swings and perhaps have weathered the storm if he had to. He would have huge height and reach advatanges which he knew how to exploit. Galento had vitrually no defense and Foster could jab him at will.

Spinks did struggle against Ledoux. However, that was in only his 6th pro fight. Ledoux was a lot tougher than Galento and whileobvioulsy not that skillful he had more skilfull than Galento. Spinks was still at the stage where he was improving greatly. His fights against Ali, Ball, Mercado, and Evangelista would have been good enough to beat Galento. Of course his career fell apart and Galento would have beaten him later on.

Galento's power is over-rated? The unanimous opinion of those who saw him in person and who fought him was that his left hook was one of the hardest ever . . .he scored a knockout in around 70% of his wins, in a deep era in which he often fought several times a month.

Foster had good boxing skills but was not very slick. Galento beat guys who were bigger than Foster and who had better defense. Stick-figure Foster did not have the strength to keep Galento on the end of the jab for the full distance.

I would have loved to see Spinks bring his pressure, high volume but light-hitting style into Galento's wheelbarrow . . I'd be suprised if Leon lasted 3 rounds.

Jackie Gleason has attested to Galento's power. I'm sure you've seen the interview on You Tube.

If Galento could get those men to fight his fight, he beats them all. Louis almost lost to Galento by slugging it out and couldnt handle the heat, so I dont think the men listed could have beaten Galento in a brawl. That being said, if they couldnt be conned into doing it, Galento's win/loss ratio grows steep. I project Moore would beat him, as would Michael Spinks. But the others would lose.

If they let Galento fight his fight which was pretty much anything goes, I see Galento beating some of these guys, especially Johannson and Spinks. They didn't call Galento "Da Joisey Nightstick" for nothing.

Cap

aside from those mentioned above, who wins Galento vs Marciano?