How did Sam Langford..

[Yogi]

Two months earlier he weighed in at 199? when he fought Joe Jeanette, at MSG, in a separate fight.

He was fat at that weight or anything close to it. To put it bluntly.

Here's a couple of quotes from the NY Times' coverage (from Oct 4th, 1913) of the fight you're alluding to here and their descriptions of Langford's condition ;

"But Sam came into the ring under the handicap of twenty pounds of surplus flesh."

"Langford, when fit, scales at 180 pounds and last night he tipped the beam at 199 1/4 pounds. He has been training two weeks, and he climbed into the ring last night with a waist line that showed plainly how far he lacked condition. Rolls of flesh stood out above his belt."

Those are typical descriptions of Langford's condition any time you see him weighing in around that range from any fight. Often he wasn't in any sort of shape.

To go back to your first post, Clay Moyle (in his recent book on Langford...very good read I might add) has him listed as weighing 125 pounds just before he embarked on his pro career in 1902 as a 16 year-old (not 19 or 20). This would have been a 16 year-old kid, who, because he largely had to fend for himself after leaving home, was simply going hungry for much of the time. Factor in his age at the time and how under fed he was, it's not hard to see why he added natural weight to his frame once he matured and started eating better.

[BennyST]

As Yogi so well pointed out, good to see you back mate btw, Langford was really only a WW to SMW/LHW under today's classes.

By around twenty he was weighing in around the JWW to WW limit and at his prime he was only a MW and later on up to a LHW, though of course he was fighting guys that were often bigger. It's not as much as it's usually made out to be.

His speed, power, chin, and defense and inside skill made fighting bigger guys much easier than it otherwise would have been though. He was an amazing fighter.

[JFB629]

When Langford fought Jeannete and weighed in at just over 199 pounds. Langford was in extremely pour condition and had rolls of fat around his midsection for the fight.

In the fight the extra weight would take it's toll on Sam, as he begin to tired rather quickley. Sam blamed the huge weight gain on being idle in Austraila and was now finding it hard to shift off.

Around this time Sam was also defeated by Gunboat Smith and admitted he didnt do much training for the bout. Reports also suggested Langford was as high as 30 pounds overweight in the bout.

He would avenege the Smith defeat down the line, but in reality it was fighter Sam should never of lost to.

Smith would later go on to Langford was the best Heavyweight he ever saw.

Langford said years later in a interview that after realising he would never be Heavyweight Champion no matter how good he was, held the attitude of whats the point of training, I aint going to get nowere. Langford admitted from here on he didn't take care of his figure and got nice and fat. This period was around 1915/1916. Lang

Langford had also become extremley frustrated with fighting the same fighters over and over again.

[phallus]

I would say that boxingrec isn't the most accurate of record keepers and also in those days I don't think the weigh ins were always as precise as they are now. Lot of guys used to weigh in wearing their clothes etc.

jack johnson's weight was usually a little less than what boxrec would say, when jack made it to the big time they added a few lbs because he was always smaller than his opponents. he weighed a lot less than jeffries and still kicked his ass

He was fat at that weight or anything close to it. To put it bluntly.

Here's a couple of quotes from the NY Times' coverage (from Oct 4th, 1913) of the fight you're alluding to here and their descriptions of Langford's condition ;

"But Sam came into the ring under the handicap of twenty pounds of surplus flesh."

"Langford, when fit, scales at 180 pounds and last night he tipped the beam at 199 1/4 pounds. He has been training two weeks, and he climbed into the ring last night with a waist line that showed plainly how far he lacked condition. Rolls of flesh stood out above his belt."

Those are typical descriptions of Langford's condition any time you see him weighing in around that range from any fight. Often he wasn't in any sort of shape.

To go back to your first post, Clay Moyle (in his recent book on Langford...very good read I might add) has him listed as weighing 125 pounds just before he embarked on his pro career in 1902 as a 16 year-old (not 19 or 20). This would have been a 16 year-old kid, who, because he largely had to fend for himself after leaving home, was simply going hungry for much of the time. Factor in his age at the time and how under fed he was, it's not hard to see why he added natural weight to his frame once he matured and started eating better.

yeah, sam would be prime at around 160 - 175 lbs... good to see u again, Yogi