[professordp]

Herring was your typical Texas heavyweight. A tough, mean brawler who didn't move backwards. At 6'3" he was tall and rangy and could pack a wallop.

After beating up the local competition in the Houston area for a few years, Herring moved his way slowly up the heavyweight ladder in the early sixties. By the middle of the decade he was fighting in the upper ranks but sort of hit the glass ceiling.

He faced the division's elder statesmen in the form of Floyd Patterson, Cleveland Williams, and Zora Folley. All were past their primes but each halted Herring. That was pretty much the way you beat Tod. He only lost six fights out of a total of thirty-three, and five of the losses were by way of an early exit.

In addiition to the above, Herring was also halted by Tony Alongi and Elmer Rush. But Herring was never counted out. All the stoppages were by way of the TKO.

He had no real defensive abilities to speak of and was willing to trade with the men he faced. He only went the distance seven times in his twenty-seven wins.

Despite his power, he seemed to have trouble with guys who had some boxing skills. Glass jaws like Bill McMurray, Sonny Moore, and Tunney Hunsaker were able to elude his power for ten rounds in losing efforts to Herring.

After being stopped in three straight fights (Patterson, Rush, and Williams), his career was pretty much over in the middle of 1966. He did come back a year later for one more fight which he won with a TKO over the misnamed Jack Johnson.

I had posted the picture below at some point in the last year.