We know he wasn’t an elite “ fighter “ but what about his actual punching ability when looked at by itself ?
I don't know but DaVarryl Williamson is someone from the very minor name heavyweight groups of the time I feel very confident in saying was an elite puncher, faults, deficits and luck aside. I know Ross has that Klitschko win but I can't remember catching wind of people's rumblings about revering his power, like I have heard for DaVarryl from quite a few people. I'm not trying to be irrelevant, but I'm just comparing this to a similar boat guy as I am thinking about it. Listen, I am increasing the thread's post count, if nothing else, and isn't that what should be respected the most? Yes. It is.
No, definitely not - at least not how I understand the term "elite puncher". I saw quite a bit of his fights. He was strong physically, defensively solid and carried a decent punch for sure - but his high KO percentage was more down to the fact that his output was low and He was fighting on short notice as B-side, so most of the times He was only able to win fights by stoppage and almost all of his fights that went the distance ended in a loss.
I think Purrity was verging on elite territory. His upper body strength is huge. Ross' main problem was his lack of explosiveness or sneaky techniques or timing. He could hit real hard, but had problems in actually landing the devastating punches. I reckon his main drawback was a lack of speed. Old Foreman had a similar problem but he could make up for it with his sense of timing and his extra heavy jab. Ross mainly plodded around hoping for an opening.
Ross had good power - McCall level or thereabouts - but like McCall was often one paced and could be outboxed. Not surprising really as he had no amatuer experience and was basically learning on the job and was overmatched early on. Against a stationary target my guess is he hit hard enough to keep most top level guys on their toes, just the delivery/timing was lacking. A very solid fringe contender all things considered a a handful when in the mood
A lot of his record comes down to poor management. If the trainers and promoters could’ve seen how his career played out in advance, he likely would’ve been guided to at least a title shot.
I agree ... Ross could have had a much better record than he did with better trainers and better managers.
