Stanley Ketchel

Stanley Ketchel
Data
Birth Name	Stanislaus Kiecal
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	US-american
birthday	April 14, 1886
place of birth	Grand Rapids
Date of death	October 15, 1910
Place of death	Conway
size	1.75 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	64
Victories	54
Knockout victories	49
Defeats	4th
draw	5
No value	1

Stanley Ketchel (born April 14, 1886 in Grand Rapids , Michigan as Stanislaus Kiecal , † October 15, 1910 in Conway , Missouri ) was the American middleweight boxing champion. He is still classified by many experts as the best middleweight puncher of all time and achieved world fame when he sensationally knocked the legendary heavyweight world champion Jack Johnson in Colma, California in round 12 on October 16, 1909 . Johnson, who was 22 kg heavier, got to his feet just in time and, while still dazed, knocked Ketchel, who was attacking wildly and without cover.

Life

Ketchel himself reportedly gave Butte, Montana, where he began his professional career, as his place of birth and September 14, 1887 as his date of birth. He was an orphan at the age of 14 when his parents were murdered and a tramp. He learned to fight with his fists for bare survival among his own kind. At the age of 19 he started boxing as a professional and became world middleweight champion just two years later thanks to his speed, paired with enormous punching power, which was also the undoing of adult heavyweights. Only 24 years old, Ketchel was shot , probably out of jealousy, by farm worker Walter A. Dipley while training on a farm .

In 1990 Ketchel was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame .

Struggles

In total, Ketchel fought 64 times in just 7 years as a professional. He won 53, 50 of them by knockout, lost 4, 4 each ended in a draw or without a decision.

Fights against light heavy and heavyweights: He fought against the light heavyweight world champion Jack O'Brian in 1909 for 20 rounds "without a decision", where O'Brian experienced the final gong on the ring floor, which saved him from the knockout. Ketchel won the revenge match by technical knockout in round 3. In both fights, O'Brian did not risk his title. After the Johnson fight in 1910, he fought the top notch Sam Langford without a decision.

The fight against Jack Johnson

In the absence of the documentation that is customary today, this fabulous struggle has given the public different interpretations. One reason for this is surely that Johnson couldn't admit he was knocked down by a middleweight. There are two ways of reading the fight. According to Johnson's assertion, against which the now deceased Ketchel could no longer defend himself, the fight had been arranged as an exhibition match over 20 rounds, and Ketchel had knocked him to the ground with a devious hit. The other version classifies it as an official world championship, which is supported on many points by a film that shows the 12 rounds seamlessly. The knockout blow is also described from the hard cross, which made Ketchel "stay away" for 5 minutes, to the huge blow with permanent damage to Ketchel. Ketchel reportedly lost all of the teeth that Johnson wiped from his glove while the referee was counting. In addition, he is said to have been unconscious for 1 hour and “punchdrunk” for the rest of his life, so not very clear in his head. RR Bearden (East Side Boxing.com) describes "What really happened in the Johnson - Ketchel fight", summarized here, as follows: From the first round on both sides were hit hard. In round 2 Johnson gets very aggressive, Ketchel goes down and is counted to 8. Johnson dominated the fight until round 7, Ketchel was bleeding from his face. Round 9 to 11: Ketchel attacks and the crowd senses his chance. Both are drawn at the beginning of round 12. With a right hand, pulled far from the hip and struck on the wing against Johnson's chin, Ketchel hits so hard that Johnson, badly hit, has great difficulty getting back on his feet in time to continue the fight. Ketchel, sniffing the knockout, runs into a terrible right hand that leaves him flat on his back for a long time. By the way, Bearden notes: Johnson did not wipe Ketchel's teeth from his right glove, but rather ring dirt, resulting from the support he gave when standing up after the rain, from the left.

Web links

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