Best five wins from the best contenders

Vitali

sanders
Peter
Adamek
Hide
Johnson

 

Jeannette;
McVea
Langford
Jack Johnson
Clark
Ferguson

Carpentier, Battling Jim, Madden, Ross, Flynn, Thompson and a load more good wins. Plus Wills and Norfolk fights.

 

Continuing my obscure contender of the day, I look at Eddie Blunt. Blunt was never highly rated, but was a gatekeeper, spoiler type from the mid 1930's to the mid 1940's. His record was a statistically unimposing 36-20-6 with 14 KO's, but he has some interesting scalps:

Eddie Blunt
1-----Buddy Baer
2-----Lee Savold
3-----Abe Simon
4-----Jack Trammell
5-----Al Gainer

plus Tony Musto, Babe Hunt, Nathan Mann, Leroy Haynes, and Willie Reddish

A guy who was a worthy opponent for anyone, and a dangerous one.

 

BYRD

1- Vitali
2- Tua
3- Holyfield
4-Mccline
5-Davarryl Williamson


I remember scoring the fight in favor of Oquendo 7-5

 

VITALI
1-Sanders
2-Gomez
3-Peter
4-Hide
5-Chisora


could be any order from 2 to 5

 

This

 

yeah, that's impressive. And from about 15 fights in, almost everybody he fought was decent.

 

With a nod to Jason Thomas,
Tiger Jack Fox
Rosenbloom, Walcott, Blunt(!) Gainer, Tramell, Hankinson, Dudas

 

Jeannette resume better than Vitli imo. And I'm a Vitai fan, always felt Wlads success, Vitali's injuries, timing etc led to Wlad becoming the poster boy for the Klits.

 

Denver Ed was long shot when he fought Wills. Fulton, Norfolk, Weinert and Clarke would be better picks.

 

Harry Wills

1) Sam Langford
2) Sam McVey
3) Luis Firpo
4) Fred Fulton
5) Charley Weinert

I didn't include Jeanette because it was a close No Decision. I normally don't like to even include ND's but because all accounts said Wills gave Firpo a thumping I included that one. I also left off Denver Ed because he was making a comeback after 7 years out of the ring and had beaten 3 fighters of modest talent when Wills finished him off, so it wasn't much of a win. Fulton and Weinert had good streaks against good talent going so that's my top 5 for Wills.

Jerry Quarry

1) Floyd Patterson
2) Ron Lyle
3) Earnie Shavers
4) Mac Foster
5) Thad Spencer

I omitted Buster Mathis here because his rating at the time paled in comparison to Thad Spencer's who was a semi-finalist in the heavy tourney when Jerry beat him. I believe Buster only broke into the ratings with his win over Chuvalo. Overall, Buster probably was better than Mac and Thad, but they were top rung when Jerry beat them.

 

Harry Wills

1----Sam Langford
2----Sam McVea
3----Fred Fulton
4----Charley Weinert
5----Kid Norfolk

Not making cut: Firpo--I decided to go with KO wins. Same with Jeannette and Willie Meehan.
Others--Jeff Clarke, Pete Everett, Bill Tate, Gunboat Smith, Denver Ed Martin, Homer Smith, Bartley Madden, Floyd Johnson, Battling Johnson
Wills has big names at the top, and good depth, but spectacular depth in tough fights as he was forced to fight top black fighters over and over again due to the color line.

Jerry Quarry

1----Floyd Patterson
2----Ron Lyle
3----Earnie Shavers
4----Mac Foster
5----Thad Spencer

comments--I think a bit less impressive top five than his strongest fans assume. Foster is another Gerry Cooney, blowing away fading or outright gone name opponents, except his list has not quite the names Cooney has. So I see Foster as a ? type. Spencer looked okay against Anaconda Ernie Terrell and won due to more reasonable scoring than had been the norm for Terrell's jab, grab, grab some more and hold, then run, style.
Others--Alex Miteff, Brian London, Buster Mathis, Jack Bodell, Eduardo Corletti, Larry Middleton, Randy Neumann, Tony Doyle, Lorenzo Zanon.
Lots of depth. Quarry's resume strong suit. Mathis might be considered for a top five spot, but other than outpointing Chuvalo, didn't accomplish much. Corletti was actually a higher rated fighter by the NBA.