BoxRec

I think there have been a few post recently about good resumes and also good runs of opponents but Smith's is ridiculous. I don't think there's a boxer in history with such a stellar list of opponents and so varied. Also got to give this guy a lot of credit for fighting anyone at any time. Just scanned through his record I see

Denver Ed Martin
Frank Moran
Bomb Billy Wells
Jess Willard
Fireman Jim Flynn
Carl Morris
Sam Langford
Jack Blackburn
Georges Carpentier
Balling Levinsky
Jack Dillon
Big Bill Tate
Jack Dempsey
Fred Fulton
Billy Miske
Harry Greb
Harry Wills

Incredible breadth of talent and weights etc. I wish he was alive and on this forum - he'd no doubt settle a few arguments as this guy fought Langford, Wills, Dempsey and Greb too :)








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Gunboat Smith was still alive in 1970 and was interviewed by Peter Heller in the previously mentioned book
IN THIS CORNER.

Caractacus wrote:Gunboat Smith was still alive in 1970 and was interviewed by Peter Heller in the previously mentioned book
IN THIS CORNER.

Any comment from him about who he felt was the toughest man he'd ever faced?

cfang wrote:I think there have been a few post recently about good resumes and also good runs of opponents but Smith's is ridiculous. I don't think there's a boxer in history with such a stellar list of opponents and so varied. Also got to give this guy a lot of credit for fighting anyone at any time. Just scanned through his record I see

Denver Ed Martin
Frank Moran
Bomb Billy Wells
Jess Willard
Fireman Jim Flynn
Carl Morris
Sam Langford
Jack Blackburn
Georges Carpentier
Balling Levinsky
Jack Dillon
Big Bill Tate
Jack Dempsey
Fred Fulton
Billy Miske
Harry Greb
Harry Wills

Incredible breadth of talent and weights etc. I wish he was alive and on this forum - he'd no doubt settle a few arguments as this guy fought Langford, Wills, Dempsey and Greb too :)

e

Was that the same Balling Levinsky who turned porno star after retiring from boxing?

gilgamesh wrote:

Caractacus wrote:Gunboat Smith was still alive in 1970 and was interviewed by Peter Heller in the previously mentioned book
IN THIS CORNER.

Any comment from him about who he felt was the toughest man he'd ever faced?

Gil you should pick up a copy of that book... i think you would have a great appreciation of the recollections of the fighters that appear in the book....

Tinnie wrote:

gilgamesh wrote:

Caractacus wrote:Gunboat Smith was still alive in 1970 and was interviewed by Peter Heller in the previously mentioned book
IN THIS CORNER.

Any comment from him about who he felt was the toughest man he'd ever faced?

Gil you should pick up a copy of that book... i think you would have a great appreciation of the recollections of the fighters that appear in the book....

I'll definitely try to pick it up. I love reading about Boxing, just haven't done it as much as I'd like lately. I've checked out and read most Boxing related books from my local library though

Yes, IN THIS CORNER is a real interesting book.
The interview with Gunboat Smith was really in-depth,
I remember when I first saw the book at the library around 1977,I couldnt believe
Gunboat Smith was still aound to be have been interviewedfor it
it was almost like interviewing a survivor of the Jurassic Age.

(some of the other interviews in the book like the one with Joe Louis were weak,but Louis
was in the process of writing his own autobiography so that could have been a reason).

cfang wrote:I think there have been a few post recently about good resumes and also good runs of opponents but Smith's is ridiculous. I don't think there's a boxer in history with such a stellar list of opponents and so varied. Also got to give this guy a lot of credit for fighting anyone at any time. Just scanned through his record I see

Denver Ed Martin
Frank Moran
Bomb Billy Wells
Jess Willard
Fireman Jim Flynn
Carl Morris
Sam Langford
Jack Blackburn
Georges Carpentier
Balling Levinsky
Jack Dillon
Big Bill Tate
Jack Dempsey
Fred Fulton
Billy Miske
Harry Greb
Harry Wills

Incredible breadth of talent and weights etc. I wish he was alive and on this forum - he'd no doubt settle a few arguments as this guy fought Langford, Wills, Dempsey and Greb too :)


e

Smith is an interesting cat. I've never seen a thread on him. Did Jack Johnson avoid Smith for a title shot? He certainly earned it by defeating Willard, Flynn, and Moran.

It was Jack Johnson who "discovered" Gunboat Smith when he hired him as a sparring partner
when Smith was discharged from the Navy and looking for a job back in the Summer of 1909.
Johnson had said that Smith was as hard as a hitter as he had ever faced.
What made the Gunner known was
that there was a story in the newspapers that Smith had knocked Johnson down (if not out)
in the last round of a four round exhibition at the Seal Rock House in San Francisco in early October 1909 with a right overhand punch coming out of a clinch.
Reportedly Johnson was going on the offensive and talking to someone outside the ring at the same time when the punch landed.
He reportly got on his feet just after the count but his manager cut the round short because he was still in a daze.
Smith said in the 1970 interview that he had only knocked Johnson out through the ropes
and almost out of the Seal Rock House)
as Smith was hired as Johnson's chief sparring partner for his bout with Stanley Ketchel and also for the Jim J. Jeffries .

Gunboat Smith challenged Jack Johnson for the title in 1914 when Johnson was on the lam in France
originally it was set to fight in Tiajuana Mexico July 4th 1914 and then January 1st 1915 also In Tiajuana.
However Gunboat Smith was a popular fighting and even toured the country and Canada with a vaudeville act,
sparring,bag punching,skipping rope,shadow boxing etc.
The knock on Gunboat Smith was he had the power but not the speed to have been any kind of a real threat to Jack Johnson.

Jack Johnson thought enough of Gunboat Smith's fighting abilities to place a bet of 5,000 dollars
for Smith to defeat Georges Carpentier in London .

cfang wrote:I don't think there's a boxer in history with such a stellar list of opponents and so varied.

I don't think it's that difficult to find boxers with better list of opponents.
Say, Terry McGovern.

Harry Forbes
Casper Leon
Pedlar Palmer
George Dixon
Oscar Gardner
Tommy White
Frank Erne
Joe Gans
Aurelio Herrera
Young Corbett II
Harlem Tommy Murphy
Battling Nelson
Jimmy Britt

Senya13 wrote:

cfang wrote:I don't think there's a boxer in history with such a stellar list of opponents and so varied.

I don't think it's that difficult to find boxers with better list of opponents.

I agree with that. Don't really understand McGovern as your example, though.

Jack Dempsey remembers his first fight with Gunboat Smith.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid= ... 4331&hl=en

a true fighter, they don't make em like gunboat anymore

King Carlos wrote:

Senya13 wrote:

cfang wrote:I don't think there's a boxer in history with such a stellar list of opponents and so varied.

I don't think it's that difficult to find boxers with better list of opponents.

I agree with that. Don't really understand McGovern as your example, though.

Oh I guess it could be argued there are many many boxers with a better list of opponents. I think what I was getting at was the huge names and how varied they were. He fought Dempsey, Greb and Langford for starters and he fought Jack Blackburn who was a welter/light and Jess Willard too -the guy had an entertaining career and fought some huge names when considering he wasnt a proper title holder.

Jack Blackburn wasn't a lightweight, except very early in his career and maybe one particular fight later where he was extremely weakened by the reduction.

Senya13 wrote:Jack Blackburn wasn't a lightweight, except very early in his career and maybe one particular fight later where he was extremely weakened by the reduction.

Well maybe but he wasnt jess willard. Think he weighed 150 against smith - that makes him a welter give or take a pound.

Just suppose Jack Johnson had fought "The Gooner" in Tijuana Mexico July 4th 1914 as planned for the heaavyweight championship.
How do you think that one would have went ?

Caractacus wrote:Just suppose Jack Johnson had fought "The Gooner" in Tijuana Mexico July 4th 1914 as planned for the heaavyweight championship.
How do you think that one would have went ?

tough one. gunboat definitely had a chance, was all over johnson at a sparring session once wasn't he? johnson was some fighter though

Just like Jack Dempsey though ,Gunboat Smith had Frank Moran out on his feet(knocked him down with a right to the chin and Moran got up at a four count)
at the end of the second round of their first fight in 1912.
Moran had said he was in a cloud and a daze for the next six rounds for the rest of the 20 round fight.
Sounds like Gunboat may have had a problem finishing a fighter off when he had them badly hurt.

yes maybe he lacked that killer instinct that would be needed when fighting johnson

Cutman Scabbers wrote:

cfang wrote:I think there have been a few post recently about good resumes and also good runs of opponents but Smith's is ridiculous. I don't think there's a boxer in history with such a stellar list of opponents and so varied. Also got to give this guy a lot of credit for fighting anyone at any time. Just scanned through his record I see

Denver Ed Martin
Frank Moran
Bomb Billy Wells
Jess Willard
Fireman Jim Flynn
Carl Morris
Sam Langford
Jack Blackburn
Georges Carpentier
Balling Levinsky
Jack Dillon
Big Bill Tate
Jack Dempsey
Fred Fulton
Billy Miske
Harry Greb
Harry Wills

Incredible breadth of talent and weights etc. I wish he was alive and on this forum - he'd no doubt settle a few arguments as this guy fought Langford, Wills, Dempsey and Greb too :)

e

Was that the same Balling Levinsky who turned porno star after retiring from boxing?

Haha I'm famous for embarrassing typos

No actually it was the same "High-Ballin" Levinsky the boxer who turned truck driver after retiring from Boxing.

Caractacus wrote:No actually it was the same "High-Ballin" Levinsky the boxer who turned truck driver after retiring from Boxing.

Are you sure it wasn't the Balling Levinsky who left pro boxing for the NBA?

There had been originally plans in March 1913 for Gunboat Smith to fight Luther McCarty in May 1913 at Madison Square Garden in NYC for 10 rounds,
but McCarty instead fought Arthur Pelkey at Calgary,Alberta Canada (also scheduled for 10 rounds).