Stanley Ketchel - A double cross from being a great P4Per..........

Ketchel who is already regarded as a top middle.......Came close to beating Jack Johnson when he double-crossed him in an agreed deal for him to be carried the distance and lose on points for the cameras at Mission street arena in California 1909......Decked Johnson quite heavily in the 15th and paid for it......So legend has it some think it was a bona fide knockdown and fight.....Personally believe Johnson shouldn't have struggled with Stan.

Had his plan succeeded and it nearly did (who would believe Johnson anyway ????.....and also Johnson would never get another shot......)

Who was around then ????......Philadelphia jack O'Brien former 175 champ ???? Ketchel had already beaten him twice..........Fireman Flynn ???....He'd lost to Philadelphia Jack O'Brien !!!........James J Jeffries wouldn't be coming back....Gunboat Smith ??...Pick Ketchel there.

When you look at the contenders around chucking in the carcass of Tommy Burns who may have been persuaded.......Nothing to stop Ketchel reigning from 1909 until Willard around 1914-15..............As long as he stayed away from kitchens and wouldn't history would be so much different if he had succeeded with Jack ???....

If he wanted he could move down to 175 and beat the ordinary Bob Moha......

Looking at a top 10 ATG who would be listed higher than Usyk aren't we !!!!...........

If only Stan had timed his right hand better......If only Stan had kept out of kitchens....

For the birds I know but it is food for thought..... ....

I suppose it depends on whether or not Stanley would have chosen to draw the colour line once he was champion. He did fight Langford (at catchweight) not long after the loss to Johnson, but would he have done it as champ?

Langford is reckoned to have had the better of their fight and I think he'd be strong favourite going into a longer championship fight.

Not being an aficionado of the sport I had never heard of Stanley Ketchel and was unable to follow some of your elipses and references so was inspired to look up his wikipedia page.

According to that, which is not always accurate, the fight between him and Jack Johnson was set to go 20 rounds. Ketchel being a middleweight and Johnson being a heavyweight it seems clear that this would have to be some sort of set-up. It is said that Ketchel knocked Johnson down in the 12th and Johnson being peeved promptly got up and knocked Ketchel into the following week with his next punch. I can understand Ketchel trying to appear competitive and maybe he thought Johnson would be able to cope with getting hit by a middleweight. As far as I can tell they still remained friends but Ketchel ended up having his teeth knocked out. A year later at the age of 24 Ketchel was murdered but that had nothing to do with boxing just one of the vagaries of life.

Pretty safe to say after the goading of whitey under Johnson.........Ketchel wouldn't be defending against any black fighters.....Dempsey avoided having to..

Interesting murder case.........Spurious r*pe allegations looked more like a robbery.

Who knows.....