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

Mauriello was knocked out 30 seconds later. Does it matter? He was thoroughly outclassed by an aging champion. He looked stiff, uncoordinated, and mediocre in there. Ray probably would have cleaned his clock like he did to Savold. Mauriello was another one of long list of white contenders who hid behind the color line to secure his high rating beating white contenders, and when he did fight top black men (Bivins and Louis) he lost.

 

After he loss to number 1 rated Bivins, he didn’t fight another top black contender until getting a title shot vs Louis.

After losing to Bivins, Mauriello surpassed Bivins on the rankings in 1944 despite never defeating Bivins in a rematch or beating someone who beat Bivins.

Baksi beat Mauriello in 1944, then lost his higher rating for taking on a top black fighter in Walcott and Losing. While Mauriello padded his record against white opposition and didn’t lose his rating.

Despite black men flocking the top of the ratings 1942-1946 Mauriello never defeated ANY of them

1942 Ratings

Champion Joe Louis

1. Jimmy Bivins
2. Tami Mauriello
3. Turkey Thompson
4. Roscoe Toles
5. Harry Bobo
6. Big Boy Brown
7. Lee Savold
8. Lou Brooks
9. Tony Musto
10. Joey Maxim

So the number 1, number 3, number 4, number 5, number 6, and number 8 men were black, Mauriello never defeated any of them

1943 ratings

joe Louis*, Champion

1. Jimmy Bivins
2. Tami Mauriello
3. Lee Q. Murray
4. Curtis Sheppard
5. Gus Dorazio
6. Joe Baksi
7. Joey Maxim
8. Turkey Thompson
9. Lee Savold
10. Buddy Scott

Again, the number 1, number 3, number 4, number 8 contenders were black, Mauriello never defeated any of them


Let’s move to 1946

1946

Joe Louis, Champion

1. Tami Mauriello
2. Elmer Ray
3. Jersey Joe Walcott
4. Bruce Woodcock
5. Lee Q. Murray
6. Curtis Sheppard
7. Melio Bettina
8. Joe Baksi
9. Joe Kahut
10. Joey Maxim

So Mauriello moves to the number 1 spot despite not defeating the number 2 or number 3 men who were black. But he did defeat the number 4 man, a white man....a very soft Bruce Woodcock, who padded his record in Europe with a bunch of ham n eggers


Poor Baksi (defeated Mauriello) whom had the guts to take on top black fighters had moved all the day down to 8 because of losses to top black men, while Mauriello defeating soft white contenders like walking corpse nova and steamboat captain woodcock gave him the number 1 rating,


Look at all those top black men who were in the top 5 from 1942-1946.....Bivins, Thompson, Ray, Walcott, Shepherd, Bobo, Toles....how many did Mauriello defeat? Answer 0


I don’t know who Mauriellsos manager was, but he did a great job protecting his fighter from the superior black men and weaseling his way into a number 1 rating and easy pay day for Louis.


Bottom line: pre 1960. If you were a white fighter, all you had to do was beat other white men and avoid the top black men and you would be guaranteed a title shot.

 

Except Lewis stopped Ray in 1938. He never fought a prime mid 40s Ray. Are we talking about each man at their best here or not? The ray who beat Charles and Walcott

 

I definitely think it’s pretty alarming how many top rated black men Mauriello avoided and it helped protect his ranking so he could fight louis. Baksi, Savold fought top black men and paid the price.

 

Well he defeated two ATG fighters in Charles and Walcott when both men were in their primes, so it carries significant weight for me. Which is why I studied up on the man.

I don’t believe Louis ducked him, but he unquestionably should have been given a title shot. Unfortunately the aging louis kind of sat on his title with only 1-2 defenses per year 1946-1948. He could have fit ray in there