Not all, as I pointed Hatton should be around 15 and Benn is border to top 10, but Nelson could be in it, between 6 and 10. I would also name Sam Hill, who is arguable one of the 5 best boxers of Scotland (behind Lynch, Buchanan, Harrison and either Burns or Arthur).
Ortiz demanded a $10,000 increase in his purse to fight Buchanan. He earned more than Ken, not that Ken's bitter !
Comedy gold. Nelson is below Freddie Mills where ever you choose to place Freddie. Harrison, Burns and Arthur above Jim Watt ?
Thus the answer is more likely to be Ted "Kid" Lewis, Jimmy Wilde or Owen Moran. I'm a big admirer of Lennox but Boxing really did exist before the 80's.
Macgowan Charnley Winstone Berg Moran Downes Thomas Minter Sibson K Finnegan Rudkin Kane MacAvoy Watt Are all better than Burns, Arthur.WTF is HIll?
The use of plaster of paris was debunked - the plaster disintegrating on first impact. They tested and proved same using Big Cat Cleveland Williams during the 1960s with his bandages being dipped. Fighters make all sorts of claims - Jeffries was beat up badly so he looked for a reason beyond legal means. Even in victory Jeff got beat up a lot - and badly - the number Fitz did on him wasn’t the anomaly it has been suggested to be. Willard got beat up badly also - they went as far as accusing Dempsey of using a rail spike - because they thought it could be seen in a photo on the canvas upon the last knockdown in the first round - it turned out to simply be a full cigar thrown into the ring by an over excited spectator. Despite acknowledging Johnson as a fair winner after their fight, Jeffries also LATER claimed that he was drugged prior to the bout to excuse his performance - Jeffries being just as prone to any other fighter to gild the lily - his own word can’t be taken as absolute truth without due cross referencing. So, it would be pertinent to produce any other opponents who accused Fitz of same - like, say, Ruhlin, Maher, Sharkey, Corbett etc. - I don’t recall their claiming that Fitz doctored his bandages. Atop that, most if not all of Fitz’s KO victims otherwise cleanly acknowledged his tremendous hitting power without claiming any improprieties on Fitz’s part.
Yes, it was inconsiderate of Fitz to have only won titles in 3 different divisions - otherwise, we might’ve been able to at least allocate one title per claimant country - last count for same was 4 - so who should miss out? To throw the cat amongst the pigeons I say the US.
“Day after day, alone a hill, the man with foolish grin is keeping perfectly still…...”. sorry, you just made me think of a great Beatles song…actually, in most cases where Beatles’ songs are concerned, “great” is a superfluous descriptor.
Talent is talent. The ghosts of Ted, Jimmy and Owen would love the infrastructure that comes with elite Boxing these days. As I say, I am a huge admirer of Lennox but he wouldn't have been the same Fighter in Dempsey's era. Simply not enough had been learned. It was nearly 50 years after his last fight that Wilde became the first Flyweight inducted into the Hall of Fame.
All of the fighters mentioned were great. Ted 'Kid' Lewis would knock out Leonard and Darin, no stretch. Back then they were a lot tougher and 6 ounce gloves was their limit. The speed of films made in that era show fighters two times slower in action. IMO
