If Marciano could get to Walcott I wouldn't rule out Jeffries getting to him though Walcott's boxing ability should shine. Jeffries would have to grind down Walcott in my opinion. Could he? Don't know.
How about if we put in the ring a prime Walcott,instead of the 38 years old man Marciano faced? I suggest the1947 version who gave Louis all kinds of problems, rather than the1952 version who was 1 fight away from retirement.
I was referring to the criticisms made of Marciano's opponents, one of which is Walcott, by yourself amongst others. If your criticism is that Jeffreis opponents were often small, or old when they did some of their best work, then the same criticism is often leveled against Walcott. Jeffries is going to be bigger than Walcott, and younger than Walcott here.
This is your post. "People make exactly teh same sort of criticisms of Walcott, when he is held up as one of Rocky Marciano's best wins."
Jeffries and Walcott were both an even 6 feet tall. Jeffries won the title weighing 206lbs ,Walcott 194lbs,are you saying Jeffries extra 12 lbs would be the crucial difference? One assumes ,unless specifically stated otherwise,both men are matched in their prime.I pick the 1946,32 years old version of Walcott.
I presume that you mean the 1946 version of Walcott. So Walcott is going to be 194, and if we are going with prime Jeffries, then he is going to be more like 220. Not exactly the kind of weight difference that you would overlook, if this was one of Jeffries canonical opponents, or one of Marciano's canonical opponents. You never gave ether mans canonical opponents any credit, for matching them in height, and rightly so. My point is, that you should be having doubts here!
Given 5 feet 8 in 183lbs Sharkey gave Jeffries hell and was in front after 20 rds I see the weight issue as a non factor. Given a 39 years old, 2 years retired ,47lbs lighter,12 years older ,Fitz smashed Jeffries face to bits before his hands gave out,I see no validity in your arguments.
We have of course been over these arguments before, and failed to reach consensus. The way to look at it is thus. If Jeffries beats Walcott, and we will make Walcott white for the sake of argument, is that a huge game changer on his resume?
I would say so. Jeffries' resume is great for his time, he fought pretty much every relevant fighter between light heavyweight and heavyweight (outside of the black ones) but I don't think any of them were quite as good as Walcott. That doesn't make his wins over Sharkey, Ruhlin (I couldn't care less what his manager says), Corbett and Fitzsimmons any less good. Walcott was just bigger and better than them.
I don't know why you would want to make Walcott white? If ,as a defending champion Jeffries was challenged by a black Walcott we both know he would refuse said challenge. I am not dismissing Jeffries chances here ,I just feel Walcott should be the logical pick.I rate him superior to Corbett,Fitz, and Jeffries H2H. Corbett's resume is decidedly underwhelming, Jeffries' is mostly comprised of wins over older ,smaller men coming out of inactivity. Q Prime Walcott v 39 years old 2 years retired Fitzsimmons,who is your pick? Q Prime Walcott against 33 years old,13 months retired Corbett who hasn't won a fight for 6 years,and that one over a man weighing165lbs.Who is your pick? These matchups are against two of Jeffries very best opponents.
Walcott might have been bigger and better than them, but his resume would suggest him to be closer to their level, than he was to Jeffries.
A. Walcott, but not overwhelmingly. A. Again Walcott. Having said that I woudl probably pick Fitzsimmons over Rex Layne, who handed Walcott a loss.
