Well, just a little ::. I'd just never seen the Mildenberg fight before and was struck by how much trouble Ali had dealing with the southpaw stance and I guess I wanted to take that somewhere provocative. Be glad I didn't go with Audley Harisson.
I've never seen him outside the Ali fight but I figured a 'draw' with Folley in Frankfurt to mean a loss, tbh.
Maybe if he times his coffee right. He presents some of the problems Jones and Young did and the problems Middleberger did all at once, he might be a perfect shitstorm of awkward. Although I don't think he's as good as Jones or Young so probably not. BUT MAYBE!!!
That's your opinion and you're entitled it, as they say, but you're the first person I've ever seen refer to Mildenberger as a journeyman. When I think of 60's journeymen I see guys like Charlie Polite, Scrapiron Johnson, etc...and more recent versions in the 80s & 90s like Bigfoot Martin.
At 6'11 and 324 lbs. SHREDDED with a 28 inch waist and a reach of 94 inches, I feel like I could touch Ali with my jab and then FLAZAM!!!! huge KO
I think my misuse of 'journeyman' is the beef here i doubt our appraisals of Mildenberger are far apart. 'fringe contender' would've been better
Do you reckon he was better than that? Machen was 33 and losing more than he won when he beat him and there's not much else to put him above a standard euro level guy. My knowledge of the era is hardly exhaustive obviously, im mainly boxrecking things together, here
For what I have seen of him (admittedly only three fights) Mildenberger was about the same level as Henry Cooper and such, at his best a #5 - #10 level contender of that era. He has a good technique and he was fairly quick, but didn't have much of a punch and was a bit of weakling. Also, even though it is debatable how much size matters, a fact is that he was 6'2 and 195 lbs or so, so he was a small guy by modern standards and clearly smaller than Ali. After his brave performance against Ali he was among the favorites to win the '67 tournament. In the first round he fought Bonavena (years ago Dubblechin posted the video of the fight here). Mildenberger was in the fight, but Bonavena was just too strong and simply bullied him down four times in the bout, winning handily. He also was down several times against Ali, even though he otherwise did well. As for Ali vs Byrd, I don't see Byrd troubling Ali the same way Mildenberger did since Byrd didn't have much offense. Mildernberger was patient too but he was able to catch Ali with quick harpoon-attacks, while Byrd depended on his opponent attacking him. A guy like young Holyfield (from 90-92) might do well against Ali based on this bout, unless it was just the southpaw stance that put him off.
Good post. I've always thought of Mildenberger as a bottom of the Top 10 kinda guy for most of Ali's 1st title reign.
I don't see any wins to justify a top 10 spot, tbh. 34 year old Machen who lost his next fight to a bum? His rep is giving Ali so much trouble and he gave Ali so much trouble because any competent southpaw would
...and then went on to beat Jerry Quarry, which I guess doesn't count. Oh well, whatever. I don't really feel like going back and forth about this forever. If you really think Mildenberger was a journeyman, then good luck with that.
I tend to agree with my boy Huttles that Byrd would do very well against Ali. For a supposed highly skilled fighter and the best heavyweight ever, Ali sure did struggle against a lot of styles. Pressure fighters/swarmers like Frazier? Check. Southpaws? Check. Cagey, boxer counter puncher types like Young? Check.
Ali clearly was in horrible shape against Young... That fight is indicative of nothing other than that no one is so good that he can train by sleeping around, eating and having a good time Young should have been DQ'd for sticking his head outside of the ropes any time Ali mounted any kind offense Byrd might do well against THAT Ali... I think he gets lit up by the Ali Mildenberger (a drastically different type of fighter than Byrd) fought How the fuck would Byrd do against a guy faster than him? His fast little swats were half the reason he was able to hang with second-tier shitty 2000s heavyweights
