If I had to rank him, he would get an incomplete. If I had to be honest, in head to head rankings, Walcott might not make my top 50. Anyways, rankings are supremely silly without rigid, explicit criteria... and even then are far from objective by nature.
Tony Tubbs was Ko’d early on a few occasions in his career by left hooks. The left hook that Walcott Ko’d Charles with was about as picture perfect as it gets. Couple this with Tubbs rarely being in good shape and I have to heavily favor Jersey Joe.
Yes, but I've Walcott many, many times in footage try to set up that same punch (more of an uppercut) and fail... or worse get caught with a counter. He did it once, at a very important time, and we all remember and rightfully celebrate it. But he was often a high risk/high reward type fighter. This does not always play out well.
He was knocked so senseless by those punches though that I don’t know if it would have mattered had his chin been a few years younger. Also, Joe Walcott wasn’t Lionel Butler or Jimmy Ellis
I’d still favor Walcott. Tony had fast hands and decent skills but he never really impressed me. His win list is thin and his best performances unimpressive. He didn’t have the power needed to badly hurt Walcott and he wasn’t as good of a boxer as Ezzard Charles
Walcott wasn't exactly the model of consistency, but you definitely have an argument. I don't really count Tubbs career past the age of 35. He was a hopeless drug addict before then and past Bowe he was a hopeless OLD drug addict.
That's possibly true ,Walcott was certainly a class above both for pin point accuracy and timing .Butler might have had more pure power ,but was deficient in delivering it.
I actually thought a past prime Tubbs looked good schooling Bruce Seldon and going toe to toe with a young Bowe
