Young Stribling

[Obama]

Next on the list... Young Stribling:



Young Stribling holds the 2nd highest record for KOs in boxing history, behind Archie Moore and tied with Sam Langford. Moore however achieved his last KO at the age of 49, while Langford was 43. Stribling on the other hand was at the ripe age of 28, and only stopped fighting because he was killed in a motorcycle accident. Far from over the hill, Stribling delivered his last ring performance against reigning World Light Heavyweight Champion Maxie Rosenbloom in a non-title fight. Stribling beat Rosenbloom, making him the only hall of famer to beat Rosenbloom more than once without losing. Stribling ended his career with only 15 losses in nearly 300 fights and was knocked out only once, getting stopped against World Heavyweight Champion Max Schmeling in the last 14 seconds of the final round. Not bad for a man that started his career at Bantamweight.


Stribling turned pro at age 16, and by his 16th professional bout, he was in his 2nd title fight, against the respectable Freddie Boorde. The bout was for the Southern Featherweight Title, despite the fact that both fighters, especially Stribling, weighed in as Lightweights. Stribling's next meaningful win came in the Welterweight division against Battling Budd, and he continued to win impressively against Welterweight/Light Welterweight contenders Larry Avera, Jake Abel, James Red Herring, and Young Wallace. Herring would later go on to beat the great Jack Britton. Stribling then stepped up to the Middleweight division and defeated future Light Heavyweight contender Tony Marullo. Other notable opponents Stribling defeated at Middleweight include Jimmy King, Colin Red McLachlin, Jimmy Darcy, and Happy Howard. Soon after the Howard bout, Stribling, fresh out of High School, got his first shot at a World Title against Mike McTigue. Unfortunately for Stribling, the bout ended in a controversial draw. Even more unfortunately for Stribling, the rematch which Stribling won, was a non-title bout.


Prior to the rematch with McTigue, Stribling had a few fights worth remembering. The first of these fights was against Dave Rosenberg, a former World Middleweight Champion. The second came against the first hall of famer Stribling would ever meet, Jimmy Slattery. Stribling defeated Rosenberg but lost to Slattery. Remarkably, Stribling would defeat the next four hall of famers he met before losing to one again.


After the rematch with McTigue, Stribling moved on to his 2nd hall of famer, Tommy Loughran, and improved his record against hall of famers to 1-1. Loughran was also a former Light Heavyweight Champion at the time. Stribling would then move on to draw with future Light Heavyweight Champion Paul Berlenbach, defeat top Light Heavyweight contender Jimmy Delaney thrice, defeat Loughran yet again (2-1), defeat top Heavyweight contenders Bud Gorman once and Johnny Risko twice, and avenge his loss to Slattery (3-1) all before getting a second shot at the Light Heavyweight Championship against former opponent Berlenbach. But unfortunately for Stribling once again, he came up short. It was reported that Stribling over trained for the bout and tired in the late rounds.


Stribling rebounded from his 2nd failed attempt to win the LHW Title by defeating hall of famers Battling Levinsky (4-1) and Maxie Rosenbloom (5-1). Stribling's run against hall of famers ended there however. In a third meeting with Loughran, Tommy finally won. Loughran would go on to win the Light Heavyweight Championship for a second time just three fights later, and would never fight Stribling again. Stribling, unlucky once more, worked his way back to another title shot by not losing another fight for nearly another 60 bouts. This run was so good and included so many knock outs that it resulted in Stribling earning a #1 Heavyweight ranking in 1928, while the World Title was vacant. But in an elimination bout for the American Heavyweight Title, hall of famer and future World Heavyweight Champion Jack Sharkey halted Stribling's hope for a World Title yet again. Stribling actually had Sharkey in serious trouble during the bout, but failed to follow up on his chance to score the KO, something he was often criticized of doing throughout his career. Just imagine how many more knock outs he could have achieved if he did?


What makes matters worse, had Stribling won, he would have gotten the opportunity to meet Loughran for a 4th time. Stribling however would earn one more chance at a World title by later defeating top Heavyweight contenders Primo Carnera, Phil Scott, and Tuffy Griffiths. His 2 bouts with Carnera, who would later win the World Heavyweight Championship, are however questionable in nature. Nonetheless, Stribling earned his final title shot against hall of famer Max Schmeling, but as was the case with the rest of his career, he came up short. Once again it was reported he over trained for the bout. But hey, not bad for a former Bantamweight right? Stribling still proved to be one of the greatest fighters of all time. His resume speaks for itself, and had he actually succeeded in all of his attempts to gain World Titles, something not far fetched at all, he could arguably be considered the greatest fighter of all time.




Stribling's Final Record (Newspaper Decisions Included):
257 (128) Wins
15 (1) Losses
15 Draws
3 No Contests
1 No Decision [Also reported as a Newspaper Win?]


Hall of Famers Stribling beat:
Tommy Loughran (Light Heavyweight) [x2]
Maxie Rosenbloom (Light Heavyweight) [x2]
Battling Levinsky (Light Heavyweight) [x1]
Jimmy Slattery (Light Heavyweight) [x1]


Hall of Famers Stribling lost to:
Jack Sharkey (Heavyweight) [x1]
Max Schmeling (Heavyweight) [x1]
Tommy Loughran (Light Heavyweight) [x1]
Jimmy Slattery (Middleweight) [x1]


Articles on Stribling:
http://www.srmason-sj.org/council/jo...00/bryant.html
http://ibhof.com/pages/about/inducte...stribling.html

[Obama]

Jack Sharkey


Max Schmeling

[ecto55]

Really nice work Obama, Young Stribling rarely gets the credit he deserves these days- underrated like Tunney in some ways but his knockouts help his name stay alive.

A few interesting things about Young Stribling, one was that he was an excellent feinter- Jim Corbett regarded Stribling as the best he ever saw, (and that's saying something as skills like feinting, drawing etc were used alot more back then by some of boxing's best) and many of his KO's followed from this skill.

Also, many of Striblings KO's were from his famous 'buckshot' punch, which consisted of a left jab, then the slightest hesitation to feint a right, then once the opponent recognised the right hand movement was a feint, an immediate full-blooded right cross followed. KO!
And despite over one hundred knockouts, Jim Corbett thought that Stribling's greatest failing as a fighter was his lack of the killer instrinct, saying that Stribling was often unwilling to finish opponents with solid punches!
Imagine how many KO's could Stribling have had were he more ruthless?

[Obama]

Originally Posted by ecto55

Imagine how many KO's could Stribling have had were he more ruthless?

Maybe a couple dozen more. But if he just died at 38 instead of 28, probably over 100 more...

[jmc617]

Originally Posted by ecto55

Also, many of Striblings KO's were from his famous 'buckshot' punch, which consisted of a left jab, then the slightest hesitation to feint a right, then once the opponent recognized the right hand movement was a feint, an immediate full-blooded right cross followed. KO!

Wouldn't mind seeing the buckshot in action

What a career, all heart! He must have been on E to have went down from that cracker of a right hand Schmeling landed in the 15.

[Dj Si Thompson]

An absolute LEGEND. I only came accross Stribling on one of them boxrec missions that starts you on one fighter and you end up finding others by being led from one page to another! Obi was the one who told me about his KO record being second to the great Archie Moore.

I think Stribling died on the way to the hospital to see his new born and ironically died in the same hospital. Courage isn't the word for men like these and fighters like Witter, Ortiz etc should take note!

[scotsirishwithswagga]

thanx for the education obama wonder if any footage of the "buckshot" exists?