They did, it's widely documented many of his fights were filmed.. but they have been lost .. god knows why... one of boxings great mysteries .. but his record speaks for itself. No one comes close.
There's an argument for it.. i was thinking Barney Ross over McLarnin too.. he won his rivalries with Canzoneri & McLarnin .. great great fighters both..
I always have Jack Dempsey in an ATG ranking if we are considering impact on sport and place in history as equal parameters to skill level and resume.
Hi George. I do not have a list of top ten, if I did it would look similar to yours with maybe Ross out and Pep in, likewise Moore out and Wilde in, but not with any degree of certainty, would imagine your top 5 would look like most posters, but only in a different order. stay safe buddy, chat soon.
You should spend more time here in Classic my lounge friend.. then you would know Greb was giving up 13 pounds in his first fight with Tunney , and 8 pounds in his second bout against Gene.. You understand what that means right? Not only that Greb was clearly shopworn with more than 250 bouts in him, while Tunney was Fresh as can be in his 49th bout .. You see now mi amigo ? Really bro spend more time here in Classic
You have all of my top 5 and 6 of my top 10. I have Pep at #11. I don't think SRL or Moore are top 10, but have both top 20. I don't have McLarnin top 20 and his inclusion is the one I recommend scrutinising first. I don't have Ross top 10, he's my #15, but I don't think there's a strong argument for having McLarnin ahead of Ross. Ross was smaller, yet won their series and went 2-0 vs Canzernori, who Jimmy went 1-1 with. McLarnin has a fine win resume, but a lot of his key wins were against smaller fighters and he lost far more often than the more dominant and consistent Ross. I also have Canzernori over McLarnin. I also recommend considering Bob Fitzsimmons for inclusion. NP Jack Dempsey was considered the p4p GOAT when Fitz utterly dominated him in a 1-sided fight in his natural MW division. It took roughly 100-years of gloved boxing for the lineal LHW champ to win the lineal HW title. Moore, Foster and Lewis were amongst those that challenged and lost. It's incredibly difficult for a LHW champ to win the HW title. Yet over 80-years before Spinks squeaked past an ageing Holmes, the reigning MW champ won the HW title by KO. He also won the inaugural LHW title against ATG Philadelphia Jack O'Brien at age 41, which is about as old for an athlete at that time as 50 is today.
Good post.. with regards McLarnin I've been deep diving him a lot lately.. its his overall body of work more than anything.. for instance other than Greb he has more wins over HOF fighters than anyone else.. i also think he might have the greatest 1st round knockout in history.. over Young Corbett III.. who himself is an ATG who went on to beat some great MWs & LHWs.. also, McLarnin even as a scrawny teen was holding his own or beating great fighters beating like Pancho Villa , Jackie Fields etc.. sure there is the weight issue people often mention which is fair enough but I'll quote you a post i wrote regarding that too below.. i was considering Ross over McLarnin.. i think you're right with that.. winning convincingly his rivalries with greats like McLarnin & Canzoneri (who between them probably have about 25 wins over HOFers) is impressive .. he ran into Armstrong but i think Armstrong was the younger more fresher fighter.. & Ross's weakness was a lack of power and without power there was no way he could keep Armstrong off. One needs a punch to keep a swarmer off and Armstrong was probably the best swarmer of them all. Great shout with Fitzsimmons... what are your thoughts on Tunney?
I can't for the life of me compute how anybody doesn't have Greb in their top 10 let alone top 50.. he notched up more wins over HOF fighters than anybody else in history.. most of the time blind in one eye.. there's not a resume or career like it .. he stands alone for me.. & he never ducked anyone in a time when racial barriers were in full swing .. as for the Tunney thing.. well all we have to go on is the reports of the fights.. and the consensus is they were controversial.. Tunney and Greb faced each other 5 times.. their first encounter was considered one of the worst beatings in boxing history. Their second fight was considered to be one of the most controversial decisions in boxing at the time, with Tunney taking a UD and multiple newspapers feeling bitter, including Greb himself. Tunney, feeling like the decision was unjust himself, decided to give Greb a third fight. This time, he won a comfortable UD. Their fourth fight, however, was a controversial draw that most at the time believed Greb should've won. Tunney dominated his fifth and final match against Greb.. a MW, past his peak with one good eye.. how can anyone criticize that? And it's not like losing to Tunney is a bad thing anyway , the guy is an all-time great in his own right.. much bigger too..
Not only did he best ATG Tunney who had 13lbs & 4 inches of height on him he also beat LHW Kid Norfolk with a 17 pound weight disadvantage & HOF HW Tommy Gibbons with an 8 pound weight disadvantage.. which MW has done things like this? Name me another? There is no sane argument to be had that he ISN'T one of the greatest ever.
McLarnin certainly has a shout for greatest 1st round KO in history over the great YCIII, I agree. He lost a fight for every 5 wins and allied with his respective performances against the smaller Ross and Canzernori, is clearly behind both, imo. I have Tunney #20 p4p all time and #3 all time at LHW based solely on fights in that division. Some of his best wins were against non peak versions, but even allowing for that, his win resume is impressive, even more so when you consider his dominance.
Not bad. McLarnin's an interesting choice that I think is defensible due to the fact that he defeated the number one guy in every division he competed in from bantamweight to welterweight. I wouldn't have him in my top 10, but there's a case to be made for it. He's similar to Pac in that regard, but his climb generally impresses me than Pac's does, so I typically rate him above Pacquiao. I wouldn't have either in my top 10, personally. But it's a compelling point of discussion.