For me he falls short.Good boxer, fine jab ,excellent chin,,lacked power ,and not the quickest I've seen ,fought everyone. I'd call him very good. I'm very picky about using the word great.
Sounds like a fair assessment. I've always been wary of calling him great myself. Even though Robinson was the lb for lb best, Maxim only beat him because of the scorching heat and Robinson was a middle weight who's prime was at Welter weight. Maxim had a significant size advantage so I aleaal felt that he should have been able to handle him better. I couldn't see Moore, Charles or Spinks struggling against a Welter/middle like that
Very good overall fighter. To give Maxim credit, as he said, "the heat in the ring was just the same for him as it was for SRR and Goldstein the referee".
Input needed! After 'winning' against SRR wouldn't he still be considered viable Contender material? Why, a short time later, would he fight the teenage Patterson in an 8 round fight? I've often wondered about that.
That's true, what I meant was that as the bigger man and having a 19 lbs weight advantage at a size where that'd be pretty significant. A 154 pound fighter would be more at a disadvantage fighting a 173 pound fighter than a 185 pound fighter would be vs a 204 lbs fighter. I think say, Michael Spinks could convincingly defeat any 154 pound fighter you could name. Regardless of the weather.
A decent enough fighter ,not the worst but not a great by any means. I think Bob Foster would have stopped him before the tenth and spinks and Roy Jones win every round almost against him .
Maxim is probably the line that decides greatness, better than him you are great, less than him you are still very good. His win list is something else, Robinson, Patterson, Bivins, Satterfield, Walcott, Sheppard, Lesnevich, only ko'ed by Sheppard, in over a hundred fights, maybe he was great....
He was a great fight who fought everyone, regardless of color .. he might not be a to ten all time great but he was a great fighter without question ...
Looking at his record and tbh I think I have to alter my opinion on that McVey. Standing up to Archie Moore in 3 world title fight s proves a solid chin if nothing else .I'll change it to wide points loss for Joey ,no doubts he'd have that Chin tested against Bob .