THE 100 GREATEST BOXERS OF ALL-TIME #45: YOUNG STRIBLING
“THE KING OF THE CANEBRAKES”
224 WINS (129 BY KO), 13 LOSSES, 14 DRAWS, 38 NO-DECISIONS
International Boxing Hall of Fame Inductee 1996
Though he is unknown to most sports fans and even many boxing fans today, when William “Young” Stribling passed away at just 28 years of age in 1933, his death was seen then as one of the great tragedies in the sport’s history. Indeed, it was. Stribling never won a world championship, yet he accomplished things in the ring that few fighters ever did. He is one of only two men on my top 100 list with more than 200 victories on his record, and he is tied with the legendary Sam Langford for the second most knockout victories (129) in boxing history. Bouncing between the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions for most of his career, he fought several of the most talented fighters of his generation, including 10 Hall of Famers. Had he lived longer, he could certainly have done much more.
As far as his parents were concerned, William was born to be a boxer. They began training him for the fight game as a small child to make him a heavyweight champion. They were itinerant vaudeville performers, and they put William and his little brother Herbert on stage as juvenile boxers. After the family settled in Macon, Georgia, William turned pro in 1921 as a 15-year-old bantamweight (118 pounds), his father serving as his manager. The teen bulked up quickly and was a light heavyweight (175 pounds) by the time he first fought Mike McTigue, the reigning light heavyweight champion of the world, to a controversial draw in a 1923 non-title fight. Stribling was only 17 years old. In a rematch the next year, the hard-hitting Georgian put McTigue on the canvas, but New Jersey had outlawed boxing decisions at the time, so he had to settle without an official win, though ringside reports acknowledged he had beat the champion.
Stribling fought ridiculously often, as frequently as eight times a month. Between February 1924 and May 1926, a little over two years, he went undefeated in 67 bouts. Among those beaten in that time were Hall of Famers Jimmy Slattery and Tommy Loughran (in front of 50,000 fans in Yankee Stadium), and heavyweight contender Johnny Risko. Quick and agile, he was also strong and powerful. He was a trickster in the ring, and his trademark move was what he called the “buckshot” punch. He would feint a right-left combination, but then extend his right out again, this time with bad intentions, resulting in a knockout of his befuddled and stunned opponent. It should be noted that he refused to face black opponents, of which there were several worthy names he avoided.
On June 10, 1926, at Yankee Stadium in New York, Stribling challenged world champion Paul Berlenbach for the light heavyweight title. He had held Berlenbach to a draw in a 1924 non-title fight. Though the challenger fought well early, he faded late and lost the decision.
Losing just once in his next 77 bouts, and still in his early twenties, Stribling had grown into The Ring magazine’s number-one heavyweight contender by January 1929. Between March and June of 1928, he had won 16 consecutive bouts by knockout, no one making it past round five. 10 more consecutive knockouts came between October 1928 and January 1929, nine of them within the first three rounds.
He fought future heavyweight champion Primo Carnera twice in 1929. “The Ambling Alp,” as Carnera was known, outweighed Stribling by as much as 88 1/2 pounds in those fights. Both bouts ended in a disqualification, Carnera winning the first in London and Stribling winning the second in Paris, though there is speculation that both fights were fixed by Carnera’s gangster managers.
On July 3, 1931, he faced Hall of Famer Max Schmeling, the reigning heavyweight champ, for the title in Cleveland, Ohio. He boxed well to start, but eventually his attack wilted under return fire from Schmeling’s own feared right hand. Rising from a knockdown, he was defeated when the referee stopped the fight with fourteen seconds to go in the fight. It was the only stoppage or knockout loss of a 253-fight career.
Stribling’s last fight came on September 22, 1939, in Houston, Texas against the reigning light heavyweight champion and future Hall of Famer Maxie Rosenbloom of New York. As the bout took place over the light heavyweight limit, Maxie’s title was not on the line. A very popular fighter of the period, Rosenbloom is one of the few fighters whose record boasts more bouts than Stribling’s (274), but it was the Georgian who won a unanimous decision, pointing to greater things to come.
The son of acrobats, Stribling was always something of a daredevil. He was a pilot in the early days of aviation and once flew a plane around the Empire State Building to gain publicity. He was also a lover of fast cars and motorcycles. A week after defeating Rosenbloom, Stribling was struck by a car while riding his motorcycle to the hospital to visit his wife, who had given birth to a third child. Incurring severe injuries, he died in the same hospital on October 3, 1933.
Young Stribling’s Record vs. Hall of Famers & lineal world champions:
10/4/1923 — D 10 — Mike McTigue
2/25/1924 — L 6 — Jimmy Slattery
3/31/1924 — No-Decision 12 — Mike McTigue
6/26/1924 — W 6 — Tommy Loughran
8/27/1924 — D 6 — Paul Berlenbach
3/28/1925 — W 10 — Tommy Loughran
3/25/1926 — W 10 — Jimmy Slattery
6/10/1926 — L 15 — Paul Berlenbach
11/11/1926 — No-Decision 10 — Battling Levinsky
3/17/1927 — W 10 — Maxie Rosenbloom
5/3/1927 — L 10 — Tommy Loughran
2/27/1929 — L 10 — Jack Sharkey
11/18/1929 — L (DQ) 4 — Primo Carnera
12/7/1929 — W (DQ) 7 — Primo Carnera
7/3/1931 — L (TKO) 15 — Max Schmeling
9/22/1933 — W 10 — Maxie Rosenbloom
