Say 1913-1918 You have: Sam Langford Harry Wills Sam McVea Joe Jeannette Jack Dempsey All at or arund their HW peaks at some point during these years. Do they all belong in a primary bracket, or should one or more be relegated to the second tier? How was the second tier looking at that time, comparable to the two great HW era's in the thread title? What do you think?
I think that with the right matchups this could have been an era on a par with the 70s. I think that the coloured heavyweight division that existed from the period when Jack Johnson took it over to the period when Wills consolidated his dominance of it was the most merciless division on the history of the sport. It wasnt so much a division as a threshing machine.
I'll be shot for this, but I say no way, Jose.......... That list is fine and all, but some of them old style fighters who were / are great would be in deep **** against the 70s or 90s heavyweight dudes in a time machine.......:deal SR.BILLARDO:bbb P.S. I think Jack Johnson could've hung with ANYBODY from ANY era, but by 1915, Ol' Jack was over-the-hill himself at age 37......:rasta
I think the sh1t could fly both ways to be honest. Expect one of Ali, Frazier, Foreman to suffer a masive upset.
I don't know enough about that error to make an informed judgment, but off the top of my head, I'm hard pressed to think of any era I'd put third behind those two in that weight class.
Great Mcgrain, but where is Jack Johnson? No I think they all belong just like you listed, but In my own personel opinion I would include Jack Johnson, old or not, the old man with a tire around his midsection by 1915 could still fight pretty damm good. If you take Johnson back to 1913 I doubt anyone in the division could beat him that year.
Yeah, that's a fair shout and no mistake. It makes the division into something of a monster, in fact.