How highly do you rate four round wins against quality opposition? For example Jimmy McLarnin win against LaBarba , Oakland Jimmy Duffy wins against Dave Shade and Jack Britton.
Any win is a good win but a scheduled four round fight leaves a lot of questions to be answered about things like stamina and durability.
I don't rate four round wins. I mean, they are better than four round losses and four round draws, but holding a four round win over a great fighter doesn't mean an awful lot really, in the grand scheme of things.
In a four-round fight you have to assert your superiority over the other guy quickly and maintain it. I mean, you lose one round and you go into the fourth needing to win it or get a draw at best. You start slow and lose the first two and it’s hell to even get that draw. It’s hard to figure scheduled four-rounders from an era where that was somewhat common between main event/contender/championship-level fighters … yet at the same time they’d have fights over long distances. It shows a lot of versatility to be adept enough to take a four-rounder and fight a completely different pace/way to win over 20. Now as for beginners, who usually fight four-rounders at the start of their careers, if you beat a good fighter over four rounds it’s a feather in your cap as you’re not fighting Dusty Trunks who’s 0-3-1 with 2 KO losses … it means you and your management have some confidence if you’re willing to take on a guy who also has some promise.
Willie Meehan was 2-1-2 against Jack Dempsey in 4 round fights. Does that make Meehan better than Dempsey?
It’s the same as rating amateur wins I think. I can’t consider it when we look at the pro game at the top level but it can measure a fighters ability in a live situation with very little risk.