.
McVey was a short, stocky built puncher like
Iron Mike and with similar type punching ability.
McVey, like Tyson, also had a lot of success at a
young age; he was only 18 when he went 20 rounds
with Jack Johnson in their first fight. McVey made
his reputation as a fierce puncher knocking out
former “colored heavyweight champion” Denver Ed
Martin, a slick boxer known to have a good chin and
fast footwork in one round. Sam lost a rematch to
Martin on a ten round decision, and in a third fight
with Martin, Sam knocked him stiff with a right hand
in the 4th round. It was considered one of the
fastest and fiercest fights seen in a San Diego ring
to that time.
McVey knocked out a
lot of leading fighters of his time including Frank
Craig, “The Harlem Coffee Cooler” a rough and tumble
fighter in 3 rounds. He knocked out top notch
heavyweights like Bill Lang in 2, Jack
Lester in 8, Al Kubiak in 10, and Jim
Stewart in 6. McVey knocked out Sandy Ferguson,
who gave Joe Jeannette a very close fight in their
first meeting, in 8 rounds, and he knocked out the
promising “white hope” Arthur Pelkey in 4
rounds. Sam also held knockouts over highly regarded
heavyweights Jim Barry, and Colin Bell.
ecently
a film of McVey has emerged. The film is not too
impressive with the film speed making the fighters
look ridiculous. Imagine one of Mike Tyson’s fights
where 3 of every 4 frames are missing and the film
speeded up. Tyson missing a wild punch as filmed by
a hand-cranked camera would look hysterical, as do
many of these old pre Charlie Chaplin films. One
cannot judge the fighters of this period by the poor
quality of film that exists. The subtlety of
movement is lost, as one cannot see what the
fighters are doing most of the time. One must give
some weight to the eyewitness accounts of those who
saw the fights.
One such description
is of McVey’s best fight against the legendary Sam
Langford won by McVey on a 12 round decision in a
viscous give and take fight on June 29, 1915 in
Boston. The Boston Globe (Jun 30) reported, “At the
start McVea got his short left hook working, and he
was continually landing it on Langford’s face, jaw
and stomach. His right he shot across many times
effectively. So fast did McVea work that in one of
the rounds he hooked Langford five times to the jaw
and face in quick succession, not getting a return.”
We marvel at Joe Louis triple left hook on film
against Max Baer and here the newspaper account
describes “five” “hooks” in “rapid
succession.”
“McVea also used a jolting right
uppercut. In one round it brought Langford’s teeth
together so hard it sounded as of a bone had been
snapped.”
|
|
The newspaper account
continued, “McVea also used a jolting right
uppercut. In one round it brought Langford’s teeth
together so hard it sounded as of a bone had been
snapped.” Ouch! McVey had Langford on the verge
of a knockout in the 8th round after he punched
Langford against the ropes with a terrific right to
the jaw. Only the ropes kept him from going down. It
was one of McVey’s best efforts. His overall record
against the great Langford was a losing one 2-5-6,
which says a lot about the greatness of the fighters
in this period. It is sad that the top fighters of
the current age don’t fight each other so often as
we are robbed of a lot of great fights.
One of Sam’s fiercest
rivals was Joe Jeannette, a clever boxing master.
Head to head Jeannette and McVey are 1-1-2 1 ND
which is all even. Their April 1909 match ranks as
one of the greatest boxing matches ever contested.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on April 18,
1909 “The greatest fight witnessed in France since
John L. Sullivan and Charley Mitchell fought at
Chantilly in 1888, Joe Jeannette of New York tonight
defeated Sam McVey of California in the fiftieth
round of a finish fight.”
his fight was to
establish who was the better of the two rivals.
McVey gave Jeanette an awful beating during the
first 30 rounds. Sam floored Joe 21 times in the
first 19 rounds. After the 17th round bell Jeanette
had to be dragged to his corner. There is no way he
would have been allowed to continue under modern
conditions. We do not let men take that kind of a
beating nowadays. In an awesome display of punching
power by McVey, Jeanette was downed 27 total times.
McVey began to wear down after beating on Jeannette
who refused to be counted out, despite the hammering
he received. In the 39th round Joe sent a tiring Sam
to the canvas for the first time. McVey would hit
the canvas 6 more times in the next rounds.
Jeannette won when McVey could not come out for the
50th round! Now who was better? The man who
dominated most of the fight, displayed superior
punching ability and total domination and would have
won under modern rules e.g. McVey? Or was it
Jeannette who actually won a battle of endurance and
wills with his remarkable courage, determination and
ability to absorb punishment?
Consider in a rematch
after their thrilling 49-round bout McVey and
Jeannette fought to a 20 round “draw” on Dec 11 of
the same year, but most spectators thought McVey was
robbed as he was the aggressor throughout and landed
the more effective punches, a riot followed the
decision. If one considers the newspaper accounts
then McVey got the better of their series.
McVey fought the giant
Harry Wills five times. The May 20, 1915 New York
Herald said of McVey’s second fight against Wills
that “McVey punished Wills terrifically most of the
way, scoring a clean knockdown in the ninth, with a
left to the stomach followed by a right to the jaw.
Wills eye was cut in the 4th round and the flow of
claret proved an added handicap” and “from the third
round on the veteran (McVey) was winning easily.”
McVey won the newspaper decision in ten rounds.
McVey beat the
younger, taller and heavier Harry Wills in their
first two meetings, winning by 20-round decision in
their first fight in New Orleans on December 20,
1914 and winning the Newspaper decision over ten
rounds as described above. He then lost the next two
by decision in 12 and a knockout in 5, although
McVey claimed he was fouled in the latter contest.
Their final fight was a 6 round No Contest that was
not much more than an exhibition.
am became ill in 1921
with pneumonia. He died on Dec 21 of that year. He
would have been buried in a potter’s field if not
for former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson
stepping up and paying for his funeral.
Charley Rose, as
noted, rated Sam McVey, the # 7 heavyweight of all
time in 1968. The Holiday 1998 Ring rated Sam at #
30 among all time heavyweights in the article “The
50 Greatest Heavyweights of All Time.” Cox’s Corner
considers him among the top 25 greatest fighters in
heavyweight history.
COMMENTS?
