BoxRec

Is there any film or pictures of him boxing? I have only seen one picture of him with gloves on, and that was a locker room picture. Amazing talent, two-time medalist in the Olympic games in wrestling, a Golden Glove champion multiple times, and with just a handful of fights was practically in contention for Marciano's title. Then he up and left boxing for professional wrestling, stating that boxing was crooked. The irony of ironies. I'd like to think if Hodge was around today he'd be an ATG mma fighter.

wasn't he in pro wrasslin for a while also
in their HOF?

read he was a real hard a$$

si7dog7 wrote:wasn't he in pro wrasslin for a while also
in their HOF?

read he was a real hard a$$

Hodge was one of the NWA's greatest wrestlers of all time. Junior Heavyweight champion he was of their organisation. I do believe PRO WRESTLING ILLUSTRATED listed him among the 100 greatest pro wrestlers of all time. I truly do respect guys like Hodge, because they were 'enforcers' in the business and kept the art of true submission wrestling alive and well in the business. Similar men with his kind of pedigree and talent, The Iron Shiek, Bob Roop, Bob Backlund, Stu Hart, Lou Thesz, Verne Gagne, Karl Gotch, Billy Robinson, Bret Hart, etc. Paul Berlenbach, one of the good light heavyweight boxing champions, was also a very capable wrestler.

yeah i think he could of been one of the best mma fighters ever

His legend within Pro Wrestling can hardly be overstated. Memory serves me, he wasn't a top echelon boxer and took a money fight against Nino Valdez and was thrashed.

Dart340 wrote:His legend within Pro Wrestling can hardly be overstated. Memory serves me, he wasn't a top echelon boxer and took a money fight against Nino Valdez and was thrashed.

One couldn't really call it getting thrashed when Valdes was the #1 contender at the time, and Hodge went nine rounds with him of a scheduled ten. Hodge was damn good considering he had a handful of fights and started a pro career relatively late in life.

Hodge himself described the bout as leaving him pretty badly beaten and injured and caused him to decide he had no future in boxing at the top level. That's what I meant. Valdez was absolutely at the top of the food chain at the time as you noted, HH. No shame in losing to him.

Dart340 wrote:Hodge himself described the bout as leaving him pretty badly beaten and injured and caused him to decide he had no future in boxing at the top level. That's what I meant. Valdez was absolutely at the top of the food chain at the time as you noted, HH. No shame in losing to him.

Link to the interview, please?

And definately, no shame at all.

HH, it's been awhile since I read his comments over at Wrestling Classics in a posted interview. I'll see if I can find it by asking the mod, but no guarantees. Believe he said he got a perforated eardrum in the fight as reason he retired afterwards.

Dart340 wrote:HH, it's been awhile since I read his comments over at Wrestling Classics in a posted interview. I'll see if I can find it by asking the mod, but no guarantees. Believe he said he got a perforated eardrum in the fight as reason he retired afterwards.

Good luck in the quest for finding this article.

Homicide, now I'm confused. Articles generally confirm a "savage beating" by Valdez and Dave Meltzer corroborates this in his story about Hodge. Only quote I can find from Hodge himself says "I don't know why the referee stopped it. I wasn't hurt". Swear I read an interview on WC that said he suffered perforated eardrum and a concussion and decided his career was over, but I can't find it now. You know your stuff, what is your read/research on the Valdez fight?

Here is the best thread I could find on Hodge's boxing career. Interesting that he was said to have been hospitalized for exhaustion after the earlier kayo loss.

http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.u ... 0;t=001841

Dart340 wrote:Homicide, now I'm confused. Articles generally confirm a "savage beating" by Valdez and Dave Meltzer corroborates this in his story about Hodge. Only quote I can find from Hodge himself says "I don't know why the referee stopped it. I wasn't hurt". Swear I read an interview on WC that said he suffered perforated eardrum and a concussion and decided his career was over, but I can't find it now. You know your stuff, what is your read/research on the Valdez fight?

Here is the best thread I could find on Hodge's boxing career. Interesting that he was said to have been hospitalized for exhaustion after the earlier kayo loss.

http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.u ... 0;t=001841

All I know of the great Hodge was, he was convinced to become a boxer because he had the talent (many thought) to be the man to defeat Marciano. He then fought Valdes, and soon after Hodge went on a verbal assault of the boxing business saying it was 'crooked' and 'dishonest'. If indeed it went as Hodge said, that he wasnt hurt, etc. he may of felt that he was robbed of either going the distance or winning the fight. I will have to try and do some deep digging on the Valdes fight.

HomicideHenry wrote:

si7dog7 wrote:wasn't he in pro wrasslin for a while also
in their HOF?

read he was a real hard a$$

Hodge was one of the NWA's greatest wrestlers of all time. Junior Heavyweight champion he was of their organisation. I do believe PRO WRESTLING ILLUSTRATED listed him among the 100 greatest pro wrestlers of all time. I truly do respect guys like Hodge, because they were 'enforcers' in the business and kept the art of true submission wrestling alive and well in the business. Similar men with his kind of pedigree and talent, The Iron Shiek, Bob Roop, Bob Backlund, Stu Hart, Lou Thesz, Verne Gagne, Karl Gotch, Billy Robinson, Bret Hart, etc. Paul Berlenbach, one of the good light heavyweight boxing champions, was also a very capable wrestler.

Bob Backlund , very underrated wrestler.

Sounds like from the thread I posted a link to that Hodge was being promoted to score quick and not be exposed. I didn't quite get the whole George Gainsford piece to the discussion there. Hodge had to be an amazing athlete to be one of the greatest college wrestlers ever and be at least a passable main event boxer.