Elmer Ray: A top 30 heavyweight of all time

On what planet is a top 2 contender with a draw and a win vs. future HOFers a "waste" of a title defense?

 

As you said those guys were fringe contenders at best. If you have to string together a handful of victories over fringe guys to try and impress it says a lot about his lack of resume. How can you state categorically that he should have a da win over thompson (who I've seen and wasn't that impressed by)? Like I said to state that a guy who has literally a couple of good but very tight wins is somehow possibly top 30 he is pretty weak imo.

 

An alternative report, Reno Evening Gazette, 10/08/43;

"SAN DIEGO, Calif, Aug. 10 </9P>
A scheduled 10-round bout between
Turkey Thompson, 205, Los Angeles,
and Elmer Ray, 188. Miami,
Fla , was declared "no decision" by
Referee Lee Ramige last night
after thirty seconds of the sixth
round.
Ramage ruled that Thompson
fouled Ray once in the second and
again in the sixth. Ray was given
ten minutes to recover the second
time, but failed to answer the call.
The fight was fairly even through
the five rounds."

 

The rematch;
"LOS ANGELES, Aug. 25
Turkey Thompson, 203, Los Ange-
les defense worker, needed only
two left hooks and less than throe
minutes of the first round to hang
up his 43rd victory In 47 prizefights.
&#8226;
The husky Negro, whose home
town is Apadarko, Okla,, knocked
out Elmer Ray, 188, of Hastings,
Fla., in that brief but colorful period
of their scheduled I0 round
bout before 9,000 spectators last
night, Thompson and Ray were
rematchcd after their fight in San
Diego, Calif., two weeks ago ended
in a no-contest decision because of
an allegedly low blow by Thompson.
The first left hook to the jaw
put Ray down for a count of nine
after two minutes and 20 seconds
of the initial roundi. Twenty-nine
seconds later another left hook,
similarly placed, ended the fight."

 

If I ever produced a serious top 30 heavyweight list I'd probably have such men as .... Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Larry Holmes, John L. Sullivan, Peter Jackson, Jack Johnson, Jim Jeffries, Sonny Liston, Gene Tunney, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Evander Holyfield, Bob Fitzsimmons, Sam Langford, Harry Wills, Mike Tyson, Max Baer, Lennox Lewis, Max Schmeling, Jim Corbett, Ezzard Charles, Jersey Joe Walcott, Jack Sharkey, Floyd Patterson, Ken Norton, Riddick Bowe, Wladimir Klitschko and little Harry Greb ..... to name just 30 possible candidates .... in front of Elmer "Violent Ray"

 

Ray's reputation was that of a puncher, but he only has one KO over a top ten ranked guy. Only SuzieQ, who sounds a lot like SonnyListonsJab thinks he was a top 30 heavy. More like top 75-100 if you ask me.

 

Klompton, which fight did you see Thompson in? I have read some of Thompson's fight reports. He went down more often that I thought, and lacked skills.

 

The case for a top30 spot isn't based on resume alone, it's based on how good he was considered and the fact no one wanted to fight him. Having your common top pros consider you as 1 of the best that they didn't even want to get in the ring with speaks volumes

Plus on top of that he went 1-1 with prime versions of Charles and Walcott past his own prime

 

Going on the Thompson fights, other early losses, later losses, on balance even with the excellent Walcott/ Charles/ Savold performances I can't find a top 30 place for him either-not because he wan't very good but I cant put him ahead of the usual suspects.
Top 50 for sure though.

 

BTW thanks Sonny Liston's Jab and Marciano Frazier for this insight, I enjoyed the reading. I think it's hard to judge if he was 1 of the biggest bad asses of his era that was avoided at all costs or perhaps just another good contender

 

Looked into him fairly deeply a year or so back....Damn good fighter. Hard to rate obviously because he wasn't always given the big fights though.

Top 30? Perhaps. Ranking heavyweight gets murky after the top 20 so fitting him in somewhere in the top 30 isn't unreasonable.

 

Did he ever offer to fight Galento ?