That all depends if by rating him as a cruiser you also include: Louis Marciano Holyfield Dempsey Walcott Charles Moore Patterson Bivins Tunney etc If you do include them then I dont think he makes it
don't forget the spinks bros and qawi. but you're right because if we're going to call him a cruiserweight then you have to rate those other guys as cruisers too and in that case he clearly isn't as good as someone like Louis.
Perhaps not as highly as he did as a heavyweight. A lot of the guys who gave him issues were smaller faster fighters so he could still have got mixed results. On top of that, keeping him at cruiserweight denies him some of his legacy wins. He is probably better remembered for his feats at heavyweight than he could ever have been for dominating a weak cruiserweight era.
He doesn't because you have others who haven't even been mentioned. Miske,Gains,Fitz,Jeanette,Machen,Folley. And, another useful guy Sam Langford