How good would Luter McCarthy have been, had he not been tragical killed in the Pelkey bout? You would have to say 10 out of 10 as far as his career was alowed to progress. He had made a clean sweep of the best of the white hopes, and he clearly had considerable capacity for improvement. When he died he was 21 years of age, 6' 4'' and already weighed 205lbs, so he was going to fill out into a big heavyweight by the standards of the day. So how far could he have gone?
Hard to say in that era. He drew with Willard and it's hard to say who improved more from that point. It's honestly almost impossible to say.
Not bad. He wasn't jack Dempsey; his record against common opponents show that. probably he was better than Willard but usually a tragic early death leads to overrating. Film?
There is no doubt that McCarty died in the fight, my understanding is that no blow was struck however, so I dont think you could say he was killed. I'm not wishing to be pedantic, just that if you say killed ,that fixes the onus on Pelkey.
T thought a horse had thrown him a couple weeks before and that supposedly caused the damage. Pelkey's blow was light according to ringsiders.
Pelkey had an emotional breakdown and never recovered properly, he carried on fighting to pay his legal fees. Both he and Burns the promoter were charged with manslaughter, both were exonerated and accidental death was the verdict. The coroners report said McCarty had died of internal bleeding from a broken neck. McCarty had complained to Burns that his neck was stiff on the morning of the fight. Two possible reasons for the fatality were entertained, a recent fall from a horse or the hard 10 rounder McCarty had engaged in with Frank Moran only 4 weeks earlier.
McCarthy would neer have been alowed into the ring in that state today. It was a double tragey in some ways because it ruined Pelkey's life and career.
