A weekly exercise in ranking fighters... This week-John Kordic

[srehm1]

This week, John Kordic will be our subject. I have to admit to being a fan of kordic, even when he was a member of the habs. Even though I pulled for my bruins, i always knew Kordic was tough. He was just great at firing away with that left hand. He could completely overwhelm you in no time. A pure southpaw with a good chin who had some excellent fights. His battles with Miller, Mcrae, Paterson, Hunter, etc were great and his machine gun style of punching made for entertaining fights.

He didn't have a long career and this might give people pause when trying to rank him as an all timer. He played from the mid 80's to the very early 90's, roughly 6 or 7 years with Montreal, Toronto, Washington, and Quebec. His time with Montreal and Toronto were probably his best years as a fighter. He was still good in his stints with Quebec and Washington but he was fading fast as drugs and other off ice issues began to really take a toll on his life.

One other item that might be food for thought was the fact that he did his thing at the same time that Probert and Brown were doing theirs. Yet, we get the non fight with probert and the one sided loss against Dave brown. This is sometimes crucial to me when ranking Kordic. had Kordic beaten either one of these guys-I may have forgiven his rather short career. However, it has been a sticking point with me that he never was able score a W over either of those all time greats.

One plus, to me is just how tough he was to beat. very few losses in his career overall which is impressive considering how open he fought. I've always loved watching kordic fight but could never find a place for him in my top-25. In fact, today I'd have to rank him in the mid 30's. possibly in the 35-40 range. He had a great run early in his career as a top-10 fighter, possibly top-5 for a year or two and that carried over somewhat to his toronto years, but after that he was not the same.

One thing I have to mention, I was watching some Jim Mckenzie fights over the weekend and came across a Kordic vs. Jim McKenzie fight. I believe it was round one of their two fight series-in Quebec. A great battle against a young and hungry Jimmy mac. I have this fight on a few dvd's but have only come to appreciate it recently. Just a good battle with both taking some good punches. Here it is:

Jim McKenzie vs John Kordic Round 1 - YouTube

So where does John Kordic rank? Same options as usual and if he falls outside feel free to tell us where you think he ranks. thanks, guys!

a) 1-5
b) 6-10
c) 11-15
d) 16-20
e) 21-25
f) 26-30

[BoomBah]

Probably "E" for John Kordic.

[BENNETTWOLF]

My "thanks" button is currently suspended.

Anyway, i always put kordic at the highest spot among what i call the "short term forces". Great fighter in Mtl and Tor. Weird as he didn't really age but wasn't quite as good elsewhere possibly as his off ice life caught up to him.

I have him at about #12-13. It could easily be argued that others had more career achievments but he was brilliant and really hard to beat for a few years. Quite possible that i'm in the minority but i was really impressed with his work early on.

[MattBurger]

Kordic was pretty dominant early in his career. However his fight card lacks big names. Aside from his battles with Jay Miller, he never really fought the upper echelon of fighters of his era. His '91-'92 season in Quebec saw him face tough competition, but he lost to all the good fighters he fought that year (Dave Brown, Jim McKenzie twice, Stu Grimson). He's a tough guy for me to rank, because fight card is huge when it comes to me ranking fighters. I guess I'd put him in the E or F category?

[mikebflorida]

20-30 range, he's one of those "tweeners", loads of potential and some nice wins, and a fearsome reputation but short career and some bad losses to the top guys of the day knock him down a few rungs on the ladder.

I see him in the same group as Berube, Poesheck, and a few others who you want to put in your top 20 but just can't for one reason or another but they were still really, really good. Berube actually makes my top 20 I think while Kordic falls outside of it and the guys who are like number 15-30, there really isn't a lot of difference in them, that's why this is so darn hard to do!

[BoomBah]

While John Kordic is ranked higher than his brother, I believe Dan Kordic was the better fighter.

[fcm]

20-25 for me

[mikebflorida]

Just watched a bunch of Kordic fights.

Great hand speed, great chin, great balance, intimidating, not a ton of punching power but he was very strong, he could really throw some guys around. Lower marks for switching hands which he rarely did and fairness as he has some real black marks for cheap shotting some guys but in his favor, he would square off and throw til it was over and then it was over, not much of anything after the linesmen would step in.

Had trouble with Gord Donnelly of all people, Dave Brown, and Basil McRae and had a great feud with Jay Miller.

Very exciting fighter to watch!

[darius]

The comment about Donnelly I find interesting.

Why the write off?

Gord Donnelly from 85-90 was a hell of a fighter. Even when he left Quebec for the Peg, he was their top brawler for sure. Like anybody, he took a down swing in the 90's, but that dude was as game as they came. It wasn't until 91 when Cronin the Barbarian pushed him out of favor as top dog in Winnipeg.

Why the hatred?

[blockerpunch]

Mike B it sounds in your post like you are saying Kordic had trouble with Basil McCrae? I thought Kordic did very well in his series against McCrae, am I reading it wrong?

[BENNETTWOLF]

I probably should glance him over at DYG to re-familiarize myself with his card but i do agree with the idea he didn't fare so well vs the real top dogs on his card. Was his victory over a prime Troy Crowder while with the leafs his biggest "name" win?

For what it's worth, i have domi slightly ahead and berube and hunter just slightly behind. Not many bad losses on kordic's ledger besides getting thumped in a one sided fashion by brownie. There probably are others and he did lose a fight here and there (0-2 in two blazers vs mckenzie) but rambo generally got the best of the tougher guys he fought in series like Tim Hunter and, certainly (imo), Jay Miller.

That combination of being lefthanded and about as fast as anyone made him a handful for most.

[darius]

Be Careful with Kordic's card.

He had a ton of fights with Sherbrooke which aren't listed on DYG, but absolutely do exist, they're just undated. He fared very well against future NHL heavies and the like, while in the A. His record cannot be fashioned by DYG.

[BENNETTWOLF]

Originally Posted by darius

Be Careful with Kordic's card.

He had a ton of fights with Sherbrooke which aren't listed on DYG, but absolutely do exist, they're just undated. He fared very well against future NHL heavies and the like, while in the A. His record cannot be fashioned by DYG.

Yeah, his showing with Val James tells you pretty much all you need to know

I did just scan DYG and enjoyed a few clips etc. It pretty much confirmed what i generally thought. Johnny always impressed me by overwhelming people with the lefty blitz. He really got the best of most of his opponents unless they could keep up. There are some outstanding fights with guys who could like mckenzie, kimble, donnelly, mcrae, tinordi, clark and so forth.

Really, really tough guy to beat (domi got him pretty good in his stint with my caps very near the end). Part of my reasoning is he generally handled some real tough nuts like mcphee, paterson, mcgill (etc) with more ease than many great fighters. Just an indication of how truly good he was..........and hard to get the best of. Sterling, non-losing percentage.

No he dosen't have many "title" bouts on his ledger. That i can see as missing. That long list of "huge" wins over fellow top 20 types that others challenging for these vaunted rankings have outside of crowder and clark (etc) but he has so few losses of any type and a respectable card.

Maybe it's a bit of "what if" with JK. If his tragic downfall didn't occur, just how good he might have been or if he had padded his resume with 1-2 more seasons but to beat him you needed to pack a lunch. Hell, not to get whipped, you needed to bring a least a decent snack.

Yeah, i'm still comfortable with him between 12-15. We have reasons to shuffle all these guys. Pros and cons on all of them. That shining W-L-D record stands out to me with a better card than say, nystrom, (whose still fighting to hang in that 9-15 range for me).

[GOON 21]

His Card was good, but his career was a lil 2 short for me to put him in the top 25 or so, he was entertaining and a good 'enforcer' (played tough against tough guys and non tough guys which i like) but he seem to miss some top notch guys regularly (besides Miller) and some trouble with Brown, Grimson, Hunter, Domi, McKenzie, etc the uber heavies


.... but top 25 is a bit of a stretch, and he seemed to tally off pretty hard after leaving Montreal, (Toronto and Washington stints) so i would put him a notch lower around the 35 range or so, but still a (very good) fighter

[srehm1]

I guess I'm the only one with such a low ball ranking of Kordic. For me, Kordic was a great fighter, one of the best southpaws of his era and he lost few fights. For me the knocks are the rather short career, the lack of wins or fights vs. the best of the best, and fight card. is it me or does kordic have a huge number of fights against Mcrae, Miller and Robertson? I find it odd that Kordic could never find Brown until later when he was with Quebec. It almost seems like Kordic was playing second fiddle to Chris Nilan and allowing the veteran to do the heavy lifting when philly came to town. No fights with McSorley? I can understand this to a degree, marty was way out west, but mcsorley fought everyone. he had two chances to fight probert and we got nothing out of it. When your biggest wins were over guys you would find in the back end of peoples top-25's... miller-top-25?, Mcrae top-60?, old cochrane top-30? Hunter-top-25?, Clark-top-25-30??, - obviously these rankings are open to suggestion and I'm just throwing them out there to make a point. Kordic did beat some underrated guys I've always liked like Tinordi, Paterson, carkner, coxe and of course the win over Crowder was nice and a feather in his cap. Kordic was an open exciting fighter and this helps his cause with me, but I just don't see him as a top-20 fighter. Does he rank higher than Miller? Hunter? Berube? I'm not sure about that. All three of those guys can claim wins over either probert or Brown or both as well as having great fights, great fight cards, top-10 runs. and it's not like these guys are from a different era with weaker fight cards, these guys are from the same time frame.

EDIT: didn't see goons post but I'm still low balling Kordic you bastids!