Who was the better heavyweight Tami Mauriello or Elmer a Ray?

He has the better record against alligators!

 

1942 Mauriello no2 . Ray 0
1943 Mauriello no2 . Ray 0
1944 Mauriello no2 . Ray 8
1945 Mauriello no2 . Ray 4
1946 Mauriello no1 . Ray 2
Was Ray ever ranked above Mauriello?

 

How would a 17 and 18 years old Ray have done with Lesnevich? We know how a 26 years old Ray did with
John Henry Lewis!lol
ps Maureillo was retired in1947 so totally irrelevant!

 

Tami was surely the more accomplished welterweight!

 

I brought up one loss, when he was 26 and stopped by a 23 years old light heavyweight Lewis.

 

Ray sounds like one hell of a fighter!

 

Ray is listed as being born in1911 when do you say his prime was?Mid 40's puts him at 35/36

 

I have a feeling that if I had been around at the time, I would probably have said Mauriello, base on him holding his ranking over a significantly longer period.

I would also probably have seen Mauriello as being more deserving of a title shot than Ray.

Of course what I would not have known, is that Walcott and Charles would go on to win the lineal heavyweight title.

Without that factoid, these two wins would not appear so remarkable, and Ray's resume would look very heavily dependent on them.

 

Excellent point!

 

Or, if you were around in that time, you could have been one of those writers who was comparing Ray to Sam Langford.

 

Impossible to say what I would have thought of Ray after seeing him in action.