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2008-01-17
The Michigan Assassin Stanley Ketchel
Ketchel was born on September 14, 1886 to Polish immigrants in Grand Rapids Michigan. Ketchel had no amateur background but he was a street fighter and at the age of 14 had learned to survive by fighting on those streets. It has been said that at age17 he was passing by a boxing both at a fair when he was tossed a pair of gloves and was told if he lasted 3 rounds he would get a dollar in reward. Ketchel took the challenge and knocked the star of the show out with the first punch he landed on him. Ketchel took the money he had won at the fair and decided that fighting would be his only way out. Ketchel got a job at a local casino making $20 a week taking on all comers.



It is thought that Ketchel fought over two hundred of these unsanctioned bouts before turning pro on May third 1903 when he took on "Kid" Tracy who was also making his debut as a professional fighter. It took Ketchel less than 3 minutes to knock his man out. Nine days later he would fight in his second bout against Maurice Thompson who would out box him for six rounds for the first win of his career. After this fight Ketchel went captured a string of wins all coming by knockout in four rounds or less before meeting up with Thompson again and who once again out boxed him for a ten round decision win. After this fight Ketchel would go on another string of wins with none of them going past the 8th round before meeting up with Thompson for the last time in his career. This time around though, Ketchel fought well enough to earn a draw against his rival.



After finally making it past Thompson, Ketchel would continue to fight other up and coming fighters like himself winning mostly by knockout including one fight by knockout in the 24th round and two fights where he would draw with his opponent after twenty rounds of fighting.



Up until his first fight with Joe Thomas all but 3 of Ketchel`s fights had been in Montana. In his first bout with Joe Thomas both fighters competed evenly for twenty full rounds and the bout was scored a draw. The rematch was scheduled for 45 rounds but many doubted it would go the distance. When the fight started out both fighters tried to conserve energy well aware that they could possibly be fighting for 45 rounds. In the 13th round one of Ketchel`s gloves split and hat to be replaced. In the 16th round Ketchel knocked Thomas down but was knocked down himself in the 27th before finely wearing Thomas down and knocking him out in the 32nd round. After this bout Ketchel claimed he had won the Welterweight title but was not yet recognized as the true champion. Ketchel and Thomas would fight two more times with Ketchel winning a 20 round decision with Ketchel claiming the Middleweight title and later in 1908 knocking Thomas out in round two.



In his next bout Ketchel would take on Middleweight contender Mike "Twin" Sullivan. The fight was scheduled for 25 rounds but Ketchel would only need 1 minute and 18 seconds to knock his man out. Ketchel would also take on Sullivan`s brother Jack "Twin" Sullivan in his next bout. This fight was much more competitive with Sullivan being the boxer and Ketchel the slugger making for a very entertaining fight for those at ringside. In the end Ketchel had worn Sullivan down with his strong, fast and frequent flurries, finishing him in the 20th round of the scheduled 35 round bout. After each of those fights Ketchel had defended the Middleweight title he had claimed to have won after the Joe Thomas bouts. Only after this fight Ketchel was recognized as the linear Middleweight Champion of the World.



After winning his title Ketchel became a fighting champion defending his title nearly every month and taking on dangerous opponents such as Billy Papke whom he beat by decision and Hugo Kelly who he knocked out in the 3rd round and a fourth match with Joe Thomas as mentioned earlier. He was then matched again with Billy Papke in a title defense.



Billy Papke known as the "Illinois Thunderbolt" used a dirty tactic in this bout against Ketchel. When referee Former Heavyweight Champion James J. Jeffries signalled for the bout to start Ketchel came out like he was going to shake hands to begin the bout, but Papke had other plans. With Ketchel`s hands lowered Papke ran at Ketchel and hit him with a flurry of strong punches that had Ketchel dazed for the rest of the round and which he would not recover from for the rest of the fight. Ketchel`s right eye was fully closed at the beginning of the second round, but he would continue to fight like the warrior he was until the 12th when he was finely stopped, and Papke was crowned Middleweight champion of the World.



In their 3rd meeting two months later Ketchel still upset in the manner in which he had lost his title came out infuriated at Papke and landed a strong punch right to the head that staggered Papke and had him up against the ropes and in trouble where Ketchel would tell him, "It took you twelve rounds to knockout a blind man but I`m going to let your eyes stay open so you can see me knock you out". That is just what Ketchel did. He pounded Papke against the ropes to the body for 10 rounds before knocking him out in the 11th round. This was the only time Papke was ever knocked out in sixty four professional fights. As a result of winning this bout Ketchel was once again middleweight champion and the first to win the Middleweight title after losing it in an earlier bout.



After regaining his title from Papke, Ketchel went on a tour on the east cost where he would take on former light heavyweight champion Philadelphia Jack O`Brien in an epic battle that was exciting for the ringside crowd. Nate Fleischer who sat at ringside wrote, "I could feel my heart beating in my throat from start to finish." O`Brien controlled the early parts of the fight with his superior boxing ability but Ketchel`s intense pressuring and body attack wore down O`Brien. In the final round Ketchel needed a knockout if he was going to keep his title and he unleashed monster punches on O`Brien that floored him tree times in the round. After the final knockdown O`Brien was clearly out when he was saved by the bell and dragged back to his corner. The bout was officially called a no-decision. In the rematch six months later O`Brien would not be so lucky. It only took Ketchel 3 rounds to get rid of O`Brien this time. After the O`Brien rematch Ketchel headed back west for his fourth fight with Billy Papke. This time around Papke managed to make it the distance but would end up losing a 20 round decision.



After his final fight with Papke, Ketchel began training for a shot at the world heavyweight champion Jack Johnson. Johnson who had won the heavyweight title a year earlier from Tommy Burns had become the most hated champion in the history of the sport for all his antics in and out of the ring. Ketchel and Johnson both agreed to let the fight go the full 20 in order to make more money. However in the 12th round Ketchel unleashed a savage combo on the champ that knocked the champ down. When Johnson got up he was infuriated that Ketchel had not stuck to the plan and tried to embarrass him. Johnson waited for Ketchel to come at him when he did he hit Ketchel with a vicious uppercut that knocked Ketchel out cold and embedded one of Ketchel`s teeth in his glove. After the fight with Johnson Ketchel fought to a six round draw with contender Frank Klaus and after the fight it was reported that Ketchel was in poor shape.



In his next fight Ketchel would take on Sam Langford in a fight that was to close to call for anyone in the arena. Here is a quote from the Marion Daily Star. "Ketchel and Langford will have to fight again to settle the question of supremacy. They went a hard six-round bout at the National athletic club here and were both on their feet, able to continue, with plenty of strength and aggressiveness when the battle ended, with no decision by the referee. No knockdowns were scored in spite of the terrific hitting power of both men, and while there seems to be no doubt that they tried to do their best, they will probably come together in a longer fight in California next July for a large purse." Such was not the case for Stanley Ketchel and only four months after his last fight which was a 5th round knockout over Jim Smith and while training on a farm for an up coming rematch with Jack Johnson he was murdered by a jealous farm worker at only 24 years of age.

Sadly the world probably never got to see the best of what Ketchel had to offer because it is very likely he hadn`t hit his peak at such a young age and was still improving at the time of his death.

Even though he wasn`t able to finish his career he is still rated very highly on many historians all-time middleweight lists usually in the top 3-4 and in the opinion of this writer he is ranked second only behind the great Sugar Ray Robinson in the middleweight division albeit not fighting at 160 for long.
 
Article By: Brad Benton