Not an ideal comparison, but Maher doesn't seem to have given Jackson a particularly competitive fight anyway. I am not inclined to think that Maher would have won, if he had just been a bit more experienced.
I have read Mat's comments upon the Jackson Maher fight in the other thread. If he thinks that Maher was an out and out novice, then I would be inclined to believe him. Even so, Maher does not have a win over Jackson, or Sullivan, Corbett or Fitzsimmons. That justifies us pegging Corbett a bit higher.
Corbett doesn't have wins over Fitzsimmons,or Jackson either,only a win over a 34 years old dipso ,who hadn't fought for nearly 5years.If we've learned anything about boxing over the years ,it's that results against commons opponents are often very misleading. Ruiz Jnr v Joshua ,Ruiz v Parker,Joshua v Parker being recent examples of this. I'd rate Corbett above Maher myself,but given how the Corbett Sharkey fights turned out ,not with any great confidence.
Corbett only has win over old Sullivan, as he didn't win against Jackson and simply lost to Fitz. He also doesn't have a win over Maher. His entire superiority over Maher is based on Sullivan fight and I'm almost cerain that is not enough to me. I see them as fairly comparable fighters and Corbett was simply lucky enough to get a chance to the title. Does anybody know why they didn't fight at any point? Maher was very active, did he ever try to make fight with Corbett?
From their respective records we know that Maher would fight anybody,after beating O Donnell for Corbett's" vacant title".Corbett ,who had wanted his stable mate O Donnell to win, awarded the title to Maher in the ring.Maher replied rather ungraciously ,"to the devil with it,I want to fight you!". Corbett would never get back in the ring with Jackson.I'm pretty sure the reason the Corbett v Maher fight never happened can be laid on two things Fitz later koing Maher and Corbett not wanting the fight.
Sullivan was 33. Why do the same three posters keep making this mistake? Pardon me, but you should a lot like Rainer, and Mcvey
And part of that is on Jackson as Corbett as champion picks the venue and offered Jacksonville and New Orleans as venues, which is where his two most famous fights were held. Back then, the live gate was key to getting a big purse. Jackson passed on the offer. His mistake.
This is because people aren't familiar with who Corbett fought. He fought the best of his times and holds win over Choynski, Mitchell, McCoy, and Kilrain. These four along with Sullivan are in the boxing hall of fame. Corbett's draw with Jackson shows his ability level for those who will now surely try to nit pick these wins.
Choynski was a novice.Mitchell was a has been ,the McCoy fight will forever have an asterisk next to it.Kilrain was about 20lbs overweight.
Corbett would only fight Jackson in the deep south,and he wanted to pick the referee, this is well established.
His win over Choynski is quite impressive, but Joe was definitely better when he lost to Maher. I mean, Joe was a new fighter in the pro boxing, you can't call him elite at this point. Mitchell definitely wasn't in his prime anymore when he fought with Corbett. It's not a great win by any means, though for many boxers wins like that are very important at the beginning of their careers. Kirlan and McCoy wins are great indeed. Can't disagree. You seem to think that I discredit Corbett as a fighter - it's far from the truth. He was certainly elite fighter, one of the best in the world. I simply believe that Maher was on similar level to him and his best wins are comparable to the best wins of Corbett. It's that simple - Corbett was elite fighter but he didn't prove that he was much better than Maher and some here said it. This is where I can't agree - outside of beating old Sullivan there is nothing that puts Corbett much higher than Maher. This win over Sullivan is just not enough, because Maher would likely destroy him too at that point.
And the Champion picked the venue and ref often. They way you write it Jackson was never given the opportunity to re-match. He was. I have no quarrel with Ras Al Ghul, Mcvey and Rainer do. And I disagree we write nothing alike.