MMA Fighters & Boxing Counterparts: Part 3

David "Tank" Abbott = Tony Galento

Hard drinking, hard-hitting Tony Galento once put Joe Louis on the deck in a title challenge, before “The Brown Bomber” rallied to stop him in the next round. Far from refined and happy to be cast as a stereotypical brawler, Galento was also great with the one-liners, claiming he trained on beer and hamburgers. A portly 5-foot-9, Galento usually weighed around 235 and looked nothing like a heavyweight contender, but he carried massive power in his haymakers. He also wasn’t above delivering a foul blow and turning a match into a street-fight with elbows, wrestling, holding and hitting or any manner of roughhouse tactics.

Abbott never won a world title, either, but he carried the kind of one-shot knockout power that made him a draw and fan favorite. He’s also similar to Galento in build, witty one-liners and using inventive tactics to win a fight.

Whether it’s covering an opponent’s mouth to impede breathing -- as Tank did in the early UFCs -- or expertly placing his chin in Steve Jennum’s eye to cause extreme discomfort, Abbott knew how to close the show with panache. Abbott also disliked being beaten in overly technical fashion. Knock him out by standing toe-to-toe and you’d get no complaint, but Abbott never liked the submission game and never wanted to admit defeat if he got caught in one.

Kazushi Sakuraba = Sam Langford

Considered by many the best boxer never to win a championship, Langford was too good for his own good. He was born at the wrong time, a fighter in an era where circumstances worked against him. A 5-foot-8, blown-up middleweight, Langford turned pro at 18 in 1902 and finally hung up the gloves in 1926. With his prime occurring at roughly the same time as Jack Johnson’s title reign (1908-14), Langford only got to fight “Lil’ Arthur” once, losing a decision in a non-title bout before Johnson took the crown.

With the color barrier in effect, Langford instead fought other great black fighters of his day. He matched fists against fellow black heavy Harry Wills 22 times and fought Joe Jeannette in at least a dozen bouts. He also beat great black fighters like Joe Gans, Peter Jackson, Sam McVey and Tiger Flowers. Defensively, he was a marvel, and he carried walloping power in his fists.

In 20 years, MMA historians might look at Sakuraba’s career and draw similar parallels. Despite being a natural 185-pounder, Sakuraba was consistently matched against top light heavies and heavies, taking on a murderer’s row of opposition given his size deficit. He fought Wanderlei Silva three times, an in-his-prime Igor Vovchanchyn in 2000, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Ricardo Arona and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. He also registered wins over Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Kevin Randleman, as well as Royce, Ryan and Renzo Gracie.

Who knows what Sakuraba could have accomplished had he come along now and been able to fight solely against men his size.