BoxRec

I wonder why so little is said or written about this boxer, and why he so rarely turns up in 'dream-fights' and so on? He fought in every class from feather to heavy and compiled a record of 225-13-14 with 128 by KO. Jim Corbett said he was a master of the feint and he beat many top level fighters like McTigue, Slattery, Berlenbach, Rosenbloom, Levinsky, Loughran, and got into the last minute of the 15th with Schmeling. How does he rate at light-heavy, which seems to have been his best/regular weight?

tiredoldngrey wrote:I wonder why so little is said or written about this boxer, and why he so rarely turns up in 'dream-fights' and so on? He fought in every class from feather to heavy and compiled a record of 225-13-14 with 128 by KO. Jim Corbett said he was a master of the feint and he beat many top level fighters like McTigue, Slattery, Berlenbach, Rosenbloom, Levinsky, Loughran, and got into the last minute of the 15th with Schmeling. How does he rate at light-heavy, which seems to have been his best/regular weight?

I posted a similar question not too long ago...Stribling may be my favorite fighter in history...I love reading about him...and it's astonishing to me that he compiled that record by the age of 28...if he hadn't died who knows how many fights he may have won.

I agree that Stribling's record at such a young age is amazing. However I feel that the reason that he is not mentioned in with the all time greats is two fold. First of all most of his fights were in the South not the boxing hotspots of Califronia, New York Boston or Philly. Also if you take a look at many of the figheters he knocked out they are mostly journeymen and club fighters. Hell he wasn't the King of the Canebrakes for nothing. Stribling seemed to have a nack for top fighters not wanting to fight him because of his ability to land the knockout but also to lose every chance he did get he lost i.e. Schmeling, Sharkey, Loughran, Berlenbach, Stone and Slattery.

iceman21287 wrote:

tiredoldngrey wrote:I wonder why so little is said or written about this boxer, and why he so rarely turns up in 'dream-fights' and so on? He fought in every class from feather to heavy and compiled a record of 225-13-14 with 128 by KO. Jim Corbett said he was a master of the feint and he beat many top level fighters like McTigue, Slattery, Berlenbach, Rosenbloom, Levinsky, Loughran, and got into the last minute of the 15th with Schmeling. How does he rate at light-heavy, which seems to have been his best/regular weight?

I posted a similar question not too long ago...Stribling may be my favorite fighter in history...I love reading about him...and it's astonishing to me that he compiled that record by the age of 28...if he hadn't died who knows how many fights he may have won.

didnt he die in a motorbike accident? tragic.

Great pic! Here's another

http://www.heavyweightcollectibles.com/Post%20C18.jpg

watching stribling on film vs Schmeling is very interesting. One can see he indeed was a great feint artist, had very long arms for a light HW, had a fast snapping jab, and often danced around very similiarly to one Ali 30 years later. I still don't understand how he got away with keeping his left hand SOOO low. But to hang with the guys he did, he must have been one fast guy with great reflexes, and one can see that from the film. I don;t see his career getting too much farther if he hadn't tragically died, however, since his style was based so much on feinting and reflexes. He only would've gotten older and slower.

dempseyfire wrote:watching stribling on film vs Schmeling is very interesting. One can see he indeed was a great feint artist, had very long arms for a light HW, had a fast snapping jab, and often danced around very similiarly to one Ali 30 years later. I still don't understand how he got away with keeping his left hand SOOO low. But to hang with the guys he did, he must have been one fast guy with great reflexes, and one can see that from the film. I don;t see his career getting too much farther if he hadn't tragically died, however, since his style was based so much on feinting and reflexes. He only would've gotten older and slower.

Good point. I am also of the opinion that Stribling would never have won a world title, even though he was clearly a top contender. One of the most impressive things about Stribling to me is that, even though he had been in over 250 bouts, he still had the ability to defeat Maxie Rosenbloom, one of the true artists of the sport, by decision in his final bout.

Here's a pic of Stribling before his fight with Tony Gora in Australia

http://ejmas.com/jcs/gora/GoravsYoungStribling.jpg

Here's a great pic of Stribling training with none other than Jack Dempsey

http://www.library.gsu.edu/spcoll/spcol ... -041_a.jpg

tiredoldngrey wrote:didnt he die in a motorbike accident? tragic.

Yes, he did. See here:
http://www.boxrec.com/media/index.php/B ... ing:012052

iceman21287? Can you reduce the size of that Dempsey photo, so that our monitor widths don't get messed with?

Supposedly a lot of Stribling's opponents were a fighter who travelled along with him and fought Stribling under many different aliases.
Nobody knows exactly how many times they fought each other, but it was said to be pretty often.
Also, Stribling's fights with Carnera were suspect.

I suppose it's fair to say that Stibrlinmg isn't rated that high because too many of his fights were a bit shady. That's not to say he wasn't a very good fighter though, he proved he was on many occasions.

-KOKid-

>>>Supposedly a lot of Stribling's opponents were a fighter who travelled along with him and fought Stribling under many different aliases.<<<

That was never the case as far as I am aware and I have really researched Stribs career very thouroughly. He may have fought some fighters that were in Pa Striblings stable and several that no doubt had been and were sparring partners of Strib, but it was never a case of one of the partners using various aliases, usually Strib just went in to whatever town and fought the top heavyweight the area had, the town's star.


Strib was a good, solid heavyweight that fought a hell of a lot and he fought some very good competition mixed in with some bad, but there are very, very few top heavyweights that Strib did not fight and also very few that he did not beat.

It wasn't that his bouts were shady, it's just that he fought in any and every tank-town around the country fighting whoever was put in front of him, which in many, many instances was an opponents that had little to no chance of winning, which in turned earned him his nickname "King of the Canebrakes," which was given to him by Damon Runyon.

Strib was an excellent boxer, but he couldn't get over the hump when all the marbles were on the line. I believe he would have probably held the heavyweight title had he not been killed when he was. I know Dempsey was very fond on Strib and gave him high praise.

I have seen the film of Stribling/Sharkey; very fast very low left hands but nobody seemed to be eating right hands from the other. Stribling, having fought from feather on up, suffers from something I think Sam Langford also falls victim to, and that is that it is sometimes hard to assess how good he (and his competition) really were at various points in their career.

Stribling is definately one of those fighters who merits more mention than he generally gets and probably the main reason for this is that he never won a world title perhaps.

Some great photos here, perhaps it would be an idea to have a thread where people can post photos?...

Strib got a real bum deal is his title bout with Mike McTigue...Stribling should have been light heavyweight champion. The bout that occured in Georgia between the two has a really interesting story behind it!

The fact that he never won the big one (yet) and was tragically killed may have something to do with his getting forgotten on all time lists. He was a good fighter with a great resume.

barry wrote:Strib got a real bum deal is his title bout with Mike McTigue...Stribling should have been light heavyweight champion. The bout that occured in Georgia between the two has a really interesting story behind it!

From what I've read about the Mctigue fight Mctigue was forced to fight with a broken hand and the ref was threatened when he awarded the fight to Mctigue... so it seems like Mctigue won fair and sqaure despite efforts from some to acheive a different verdict.

striblings mother used to train him, and there was speculation that in a lot of his big fights especially schmeling, he overtrained.

This short description pertaining to the McTigue/Stribling matchup is from Harry Mullan's book, 'The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Boxing';

"It was normal practice in those days for champions to insist that their favourite referees handle their fights, to give them every possible edge. It was often a wise precaution. Mike McTigue, who took the light heavyweight title from Battling Siki, needed a little help from the referee when he faced Young Stribling, the 'Georgia Peach', in 1923. It was, even by the standards of the time, a chaotic affair. McTigue broke his hand and wanted to retire, but was 'persuaded' at gun-point to complete the 10 rounds, of which Stribling had won eight. The referee saved the Irishman's title by declaring a draw, but then hastily changed that to a win for Stribling when the crowd, which included Ku Klux Klansmen in full regalia, threatened to string him up. Once he was safely out of the state, the official announced that his original draw decision stood."

Young Stribling actually fought quite a number of top fighters,
but but that fact gets lost because he had so many bouts, often
with clubfighters or journeymen. Looking at his tremendous
amount of bouts, it is hard to believe that he was killed at
the age of 28. Moreover, it is quite possible that he would
have had many more bouts if he had lived.

I have read that Strib started out as a bantamweight
while Georges Carpentier was a flyweight at the
beginning. Both would go on to fight in heavyweight
division. Of course, one also notes that both started
out at very young age.

- Chuck Johnston

A number of years ago, I was looking at the autobiography
of a great basketball coach, Joe Lapchick, who also was a
player during the early days of the game. Lapchick
praised Young Stribling's ability to play basketball.

- Chuck Johnston

What is even more amazing about Stribbling's start as a bantamweight is that he took his power with him as he climbed up through the bigger weights! Yo0u get guys today who are middleweights and move up to Lt heavy, cruiser or heavy and their power is not as effective.