Best five wins from the best contenders

Jason, great post, and we all seem to differ on that last spot for Satterfield's top 5. We all have agreed on 4 of them being Johnson, Valdes, Baker and Oma (with differing positions) but it does seem to be down to Holman, Williams and Summerlin for #5 as you stated. I just felt Holman and Williams were both unrated up and comers when Satterfield beat them. Whereas, Summerlin actually held a world rating at the time of their bout, was on a 12 bout unbeaten streak and had beaten Zora Folley, Harold Carter, Charley Powell and Young Jack Johnson going into their bout. This one seemed pretty solid to me.

 

I definitely don't know enough about the era to vote on Gunboat Smith, but Chuvalo I can do. I compiled this based on where Chuvalo's opponents were ranked at the time of the fight. I've got the Jones fight above the Quarry fight because Chuvalo's victory over Jones was more conclusive. Chuvalo was ahead on the scorecards at the time of the stoppage, unlike in the Quarry fight.

1. Doug Jones
2. Jerry Quarry
3. Manual Ramos
4. Alex Miteff
5. Robert Cleroux

 

Gunboat Smith

1) Sam Langford
2) Jess Willard
3) Frank Moran
4) Fireman Jim Flynn
5) Battling Levinsky

George Chuvalo

1) Jerry Quarry
2) Doug Jones
3) Robert Cleroux
4) Manuel Ramos
5) Alex Miteff

 

Gunboat Smith

1----Sam Langford
2----Jess Willard
3----Fireman Jim Flynn
4----Battling Levinsky
5----Frank Moran

Others--Arthur Pelky, George Rodel, Billy Wells, Jim Coffey, Tom Cowler, Tony Ross, etc. Smith has good depth, and a really strong top two with a win over an all time great and a heavyweight champion. I don't think his bottom three will be strong enough for Gunboat to make our top ten list, but he is a contender.

George Chuvalo

1----Jerry Quarry
2----Doug Jones
3----Bob Cleroux
4----Mike DeJohn
5----Cleveland Williams

Not making the cut--Alex Miteff (hard to put him over Cleroux, DeJohn, and Williams when all KO'd him), Yvon Durelle, Willi Besmanoff, Joe Bygraves, Manuel Ramos, Dante Cane. The list is a bit better than I expected, but the big Quarry win seems a fluke. Cleroux beat him two of three, and DeJohn and Williams were well past it, although Chuvalo was also aging for Williams. Very much like Uzcudun and Godoy, a tough but limited fighter who generally lost to the better men and sometimes to second tier guys. I think Uzcudun and Godoy have better lists of victims, especially considering the cloud over the Quarry win.

 

Contender of the day

Fireman Jim Flynn

1----Sam Langford
2----Jack Dempsey
3----Al Kaufman
4----George Gardner
5----Carl Morris

Others--Bill Squires, Billy Papke, Tiger Flowers

I thought it interesting to list Flynn's top five as a comparison with Smith's. Looking at Flynn's record, he didn't do much after the second Johnson fight except for KO'ing Dempsey. The KO's of Kaufman and Gardner show that the Dempsey KO was not a complete fluke.

 

Brewster
1 Wladimir
2 Krasniqi
3 Golota
4 Meehan
5 Sprott

 

Cooney big problem was discipline

 

That, the bottle, his father who bullied him, his managers and to an extend his trainer.

Cooney's father was a really intimidating guy. Gerry said he used to hide from him in the basement, and IMO was still trying to live up to his expectations as a professional.

 

Gotta take this with a grain of salt. Context is everything. For example none of the guys listed for Razor Ruddock were prime when he beat them except Phil Jackson who was never very good. Ditto Cooney.

 

Yes! Agreed! I'm seeing some surprising picks here, like people are combing over records and picking out the famous names. I'd have to do the same thing for certain eras, which is why I didn't vote on any guys from before the 1960's. I don't know the eras well enough to understand the context of the bouts.

 

Hercules Weaver

1- Tate
2- Coetzee
3- Williams
4- Mercado
5- Tillis