You all know it in your hearts to be true. Now you just have to argue for it. Your mission, if you accept, is to produce a well-reasoned argument that Jack Sharkey at his best would beat prime Ali.
I prefer “mission” to “challenge” because this one really has that “impossible” vibe to it. Of course Ali himself would’ve told the person who “dreamed” this up to wake up and apologise. Modify it to “Out Fly Fishes” or “Out Dives” and we then have something to really work with.
Shack Sharkey was legitimately one of the better technicians of all the heavyweight champions. He was basically good at everything on paper. His only serious weaknesses, were his fragile temperament, and the fact that he didn't deal well with inside pressure. A guy like that can throw anybody a curve ball on the day.
He could bob and weave well, and showed some exceptional head movement. He was on top trading with Dempsey (who was a bigger puncher than Ali), until he was fouled. That fight should really have gone done as a Sharkey win with Dempsey fouling out. The left hook was one of his better punches, sometimes thrown in a style similar to Henry Cooper. The left hook was Ali's main weakness, and Sharkey had a very good one, however he also showed he could vary his attacks a lot He also stars in one of Hanzagod's best videos This content is protected
You can say a lot about Sharkey, but his highlights look so good. Very few HW champions had as impressive highlight videos as him. Such a shame that he was so inconsistent!
Sharkey was a good quality fighter but like most fighters of that era, a little stiff. I like Billy Conn better. He was great!
