H&G All-Time Index public fighter card
Sam Langford
Heavyweight · United States
Sam Langford ranks #146 in the H&G All-Time Index at Heavyweight, with a 81.95 All-Time Index score and a 179-30-38 professional record. His career span on this page is 1902-1926.
- All-time rank
- #146
- H&G All-Time Index
- 81.950-100 ranking index. This is the number that orders the list.
- Career record
- 179-30-38Professional wins, losses and draws.
- Active years
- 1902-1926
- Data Confidence
- MediumCareer evidence is substantial, but the public date range needs review. Treat close ranks with a wider margin.
Career story
How Sam Langford's rating rose and fell year by year, with his peak marked.
Yearly peak-form Elo rating points. This curve is separate from the 0-100 ranking index.
Show the year-by-year numbers
| Year | Peak-form Elo rating |
|---|---|
| 1903 | 1,633 |
| 1904 | 1,640 |
| 1905 | 1,653 |
| 1906 | 1,710 |
| 1907 | 1,762 |
| 1908 | 1,781 |
| 1909 | 1,791 |
| 1910 | 1,801 |
| 1911 | 1,803 |
| 1912 | 1,804 |
| 1913 | 1,784 |
| 1914 | 1,762 |
| 1915 | 1,732 |
| 1916 | 1,720 |
| 1917 | 1,689 |
| 1918 | 1,653 |
| 1919 | 1,613 |
| 1920 | 1,611 |
| 1921 | 1,598 |
| 1922 | 1,557 |
| 1923 | 1,539 |
| 1924 | 1,509 |
| 1925 | 1,463 |
| 1926 | 1,455 |
Why this ranking
Sam Langford ranks #146 with a 81.95 score on the 60-100 H&G All-Time Index. His standout win in our data is over Tiger Flowers in 1922, who reached a 1,848 Peak-form Elo, one of the stronger opponents on his record. In 5 cases a result was later reversed, including Battling Gahee, whom he beat once but lost to in a later fight. Data Confidence is Medium, so the rating should be read with wider uncertainty. Peak-form Elo is 1,804 (±148), separate from the 60-100 career Index.
What lifts or lowers this ranking
Bars show each weighted signal's relative size. Gold lifts the placement; grey holds it back.
How much the record is helped by wins over contemporaneous title-level opponents.
How much repeat elite-year presence supports the all-time case.
Same-era separation left after the shared peak and sustained rating signal is removed.
A narrow signal for lineal, explicit undisputed or major multi-belt class control in this release data; it is not a full title history.
How much major title evidence supports the rating.
Collapsed signal from peak rating, sustained rating and same-era separation.
Recognition
Ranked on the record, not the colour line
Sam Langford, the 'Boston Tar Baby', is rated among the greatest fighters in history never to receive a world-title shot. He was barred from the heavyweight championship on the colour line: first by Jack Johnson, who refused him a rematch after their 1906 bout, and then by the colour bar enforced after 1915 under Jess Willard and Jack Dempsey. A five-time World Colored Heavyweight Champion, he is ranked here strictly on his record, whom he actually fought and how he fared, with no credit for the segregated 'colored' titles he was forced to contest and no compensating bonus for the championship he was denied. His placement understates him: the same system that barred him from the title also left his achievements under-recorded.
Compare and explore
Put Sam Langford next to any other ranked fighter, or open the tools built on the same rating data.
Top fights
The highest-ranked fighters Sam Langford actually faced, biggest names first. Each one opens the head-to-head tool with the pair filled in.
- Joe Gans#42 · Index 89 · 1903
- Jack Johnson#57 · Index 88 · 1906
- Philadelphia Jack O'Brien#61 · Index 87 · 1911
- Harry Wills#120 · Index 83 · 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1922
- Stanley Ketchel#167 · Index 81 · 1910
- Joe Jennette#173 · Index 81 · 1911, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917
Show 3 more
- Tiger Flowers#192 · Index 81 · 1922
- Fred Fulton#772 · Index 73 · 1917, 1918
- Sam McVea#808 · Index 72 · 1911, 1912, 1913, 1915, 1916, 1920
Ranked-vs-ranked bouts from the pinned fight archive, ordered by opponent ranking. An objective record of who they shared a ring with.
Great rivals he never fought
Ranked fighters who shared a recognised division and whose competitive careers overlapped, with no bout between them on record. Each name opens the head-to-head tool with the pair filled in.
- Jack Dempsey#33 · Heavyweight · 8 overlapping years (1919-1926)
- Gene Tunney#44 · Heavyweight · 8 overlapping years (1919-1926)
- Tommy Gibbons#94 · Heavyweight · 7 overlapping years (1919-1925)
- Jack Dillon#101 · Heavyweight · 5 overlapping years (1919-1923)
- Billy Miske#229 · Heavyweight · 5 overlapping years (1919-1923)
- Georges Carpentier#507 · Heavyweight · 8 overlapping years (1919-1926)
Shared recognised division, overlapping competitive years, no recorded bout between them. A measured pattern only.
Linked style profile
8-axis style breakdown
Sam Langford also has a reviewed style profile with radar scores, study notes and diagnostic comparisons.
About this rating
Rankings: H&G All-Time Index v2.0.0. Reflects fights up to , the most recent on record. The ratings are fixed to that point, so fights after it are not yet included.
The rating itself is built from the 226 bouts we hold full data for from 1919 to 1926, which is why this count differs from the professional record above.
For the data-minded
Peak-form Elo rating: 1,804 (peak dated 1912-04-01). This best-point rating sits on its own scale and is not directly comparable with the 0-100 index.
The peak estimate carries an uncertainty band of about ±148 Elo, so read close comparisons with care.