SHOULDN'T have been world champions.

yeah the switch to the states really made andries into a much higher standard performer

 

Yes, if I was Manny Steward, I would get a bigger kick out of what I did with Andries than perhaps even Tommy.

 

Leon Spinks, maybe Davey Moore.

 

To me Wills was willards contender not dempseys. in any case wills best wins are over famous names past their best ,or wins over men by dec that were kod by his contempories such as Tunney and Dempsey. I think Wills gets a bit of a sympathy vote because he never got the chance to meet Dempsey,and his record is a little inflated by victories over faded veterans . mcvey and langford regularly beat wills until they just got to old. wills did not beat any dempsey opponents more convincingly, certainly not firpo or meehan. it would have been more outrageous had wills flattened firpo when he got the chance or landed fights with either miske or brennan. as it is its not quite so outrageous as some would paint it.

 

Even Cassius Clay was thought by some to be jumping the queue when he first got a shot. Some thought he was rated highly only on his big mouth, and a couple of guys at the time deserved a shot ahead of him.

In fact, probably at least 50% of world champions, including greats ones, seized the title in shots where they were not necessarily the outstanding contender.
So I dont think it's a meaningful statement to say they "SHOULDN'T" have been.

Having said that, some cases are more extreme than others.
For example, George Foreman jumped queue BIG TIME when he got that shot at Moorer, and took the title.
And Ray Leonard jumped the queue big time and got a bit of luck with a split decision to win the middleweight title from Hagler. Though he did always say, "I dont want the title, I just want to beat him".

 

:good its proberbly 80%. all eventual champions are groomed by wealthy backers who want a return on their investment. like a lotta things in life its not what you know it is who you know. The whole grooming process is about geting as far as they can with damage limitations, leap frog as many stepping stones as they can.. Idea being that a boy has enough miles on the clock to defend the title once he gets into the money. its harder to become an all time great if you got matched too hard in the begining. often the guy who paid his dues the most and deserves it is already worn out.

 

Not True.

 

wills fought Sam Langford 16 times,Sam won a couple of the early ones by ko when he was 32 and 34,got a dec in another at 32 and then there was a draw,when35 ,after this Wills won every fight,but two of those were when Langford was 35 ,and four when he was 36 ,and his eyes were bad proving langford just got too old.

as for Sam Mcvey he won the 1st two against wills when he is 30 and 31, loses the next still 31 then loses again by ko at the age of 34 proving Mcvey just got too old. Even then their last fight is ruled a no contest when they are barred from Philadelphia,Mcvey was 36.

 

Rocky Graziano. He was one of the most carefully matched fighters in history. Avoided all those killers and top contenders to get a shot at Zale that he didn't deserve. Check out the rankings. There was not a SINGLE top middleweight whom Graziano fought or defeated. He avoided all of them.

 

For various reasons, Luis Santana.

 

Tomas Molinares

 

Dickface haye

 

This was likely the racial bias of the time as Wills resume was far deeper, beating someone Wills already beat a heap of times doesn't leapfrog him

 

As for the TS there are just too many examples in history of it happening, it happens more often than not

 

Luis Santana and Montell Griffin

They should've won SAG awards instead.