Do you feel that Jim Corbett gets underrated?

For most of boxing history he was over rated.

Today the pendulum has swung too far the other way, and he often gets under rated.

 

I cannot imagine being alive at a time when Corbett was considered the greatest of all time in similar vain to Ali.

"Say Archibald, this Jack Dempsey fellow packs quite the wallop! I wonder how he'd fare against Gentleman Jim?"

something like that.

 

There would definitely have been conversations like that.

 

Could you build a case for dear Corbett? I’d like to hear it, educated and witty as you are my friend.

 

At some point in time, thinking of James J. Corbett as the Heavyweight GOAT would have been a reasonable assumption. That was probably a highly held opinion, up to the Fitzsimmons fight, and even possibly a few years beyond that, depending on how one viewed the Fitzsimmons victory.

 

You bring up a point I've mulled over for years, which is where is the line between a grueling fight time that separates the men from the boys and an endurance contest that replaces a game of skill with a game of who has more stamina and durability and it starts to slant things toward your Chuvalos and Cobbs and away from your far superior Alis and Holmeses. Holmeses? Well, this is becoming a clunky comment. I don't...I don't want to make it worse trying to edit it. Just accept how I'm pluralising names. I'm doing my best.

 

My personal opinion, is that he was somewhat overrated for most of boxing history.

When I started posting on this forum, he was still cropping up in top 20 lists, and I am not that old.

Having said that, he is not a man to be taken lightly.

He was at some point the best heavyweight in the world, with his only realistic challenger for the accolade, being a man that he drew against.

One thing that you see with Corbett, is that he outfoxed everyone.

When he lost, he was losing by knockout, and he was almost without exception up on the cards.

You could argue that the best punchers defeated him, but you could also argue that they had a lot of time to do it, given the rules of the day.

Before beating Sullivan, he beat most to the top contenders.

It is hard to judge how good these wins were, because of the paucity of information from the era, and about the fighters in general.

It is possible that his wins over Kilrain and McCaffrey for example, were a huge deal at the time.

The records of his early opponents are potentially so depleted, that we might not understand their worth today.

Overall a very confusing picture, and one that could still go either way.

 

no. but i think tunney may be underrated.

 

Somewhat overrated previously - probably due in part to over - deference to his early, iconic place in boxing history.

A founding player under the relatively new MOQ rules and justifiably recognised as a “scientific” innovator, accenting on hitting and not actually being hit back - which actually garnered no small amount of neg. feedback during his real time career - the blood thirsty “punch for punch” crowd not so impressed.

Being able to soak enormous amounts of punishment was quite the admirable quality back in the day - something Jimmy Lad pointedly avoided.

But yeah, seems a bit underrated these days. Perhaps some find him not so likeable, at least not as likeable as other fighters of the era.

Certainly Fitz garners great and timeless credit for putting out a well fatigued Corbett with the good old, later round solar plexus punch.

However, there’s reasonable credit to be afforded to Corbett even in that loss - he was grossly inactive yet, with fuel in the tank, he was outboxing and battering Fitz rather easily, even dropping the durable one hard in round 6.

It would’ve been interesting if Fitz had rematched Corbett in the next 6 months to a year after Carson City.

Personally, I’m not sure if I would’ve necessarily favoured Ruby Robert - though, if it came down to attrition and who outlasts who again, then I guess Fitz - but Corbett did prove he could easily outbox and seriously hurt Fitz, so a better prepared and conditioned Corbett has a chance of seeing Bob out in a rematch.

Perhaps part of Corbett’s current underrating is also due to the over sighted fact that it seems, when set, he could throw some shots with a bit of steam behind them and even Jeffries attested to being shook up - he wasn’t a KO puncher per se of course but, when inclined, not necessarily a powder puff hitter either.

 

I'd like to see the articles you'd produce with time and diligent effort. Your way of thinking is unique but understandable and I think you'd be a good voice for old boxing. Consider it my friend.

 

And he replies with '' oh come now, we know the answer to that!. Why, there was a poll on classic that said Corbett is the GOAT!!. '

 

Here are the IBRO's aggregate rankings, based on a poll of their members, from 2005. As you can see Corbett made the top 20, ahead of Riddick Bowe, Max Schmeling, and John L Sullivan, and Bob Fitzsimmons who shared many of the same opponents. In their 2019 poll Corbett missed the cut, but not by a huge margin. This suggests to me that Corbett held his place in the rankings quite well, until very recently.

Updated March 2005
1. Joe Louis
2. Muhammad Ali
3. Jack Johnson
4. Jack Dempsey
5. Rocky Marciano
6. Larry Holmes
7. James J. Jeffries
8. George Foreman
9. Sonny Liston
10. Joe Frazier
11. Gene Tunney
12. Lennox Lewis
13. Mike Tyson
14. Evander Holyfield
15. Sam Langford
16. Jersey Joe Walcott
17. Ezzard Charles
18. Harry Wills
19. James J. Corbett
20. Bob Fitzsimmons

Just missing the cut: Riddick Bowe, Max Schmeling, Joe Jeannette, Peter Jackson, John L. Sullivan, George Godfrey, Max Baer, Ken Norton, Sam McVey and Jack Sharkey.

 

Maybe the G-man, Jimmy Lad, comes across better in big boy’s pants - this is possibly as authentic looking as his actual fight vs McCoy was - no film of same but described as dubious, the complexion and result heavily questioned.

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