The proposition has been made by one of our esteemed contributors that Fred The Plasterer Fulton is an All Time Great. Please to vote on this matter and perhaps add what your criteria for such status might be.
I am humbled to be considered an "esteemed contributer". But whether or not he was an ATG Fulton was a top 2-4 HW for about 5 years and is near the top of the KO and KO rate leaderboards. Mac Foster has an 100% KO rate but less than half the KOs. The only HW contenders with more KOs than Fulton are Archie Moore, Stribling, Langford and Godfrey. Foster doesn't come up whenever I bring up HW contenders with the highest rates etc because I don't consider him a contender and didn't include him in the list I keep. Maybe I should because of the 15 rounder with Ali because under my system that'd make him a contender if it was a few years earlier. Thats an arbitrary distinction I make because the NABF reduced the importance of eliminators and Fosters probably better than some people I do count. But either way Foster was a marginal contender while Fulton was at times considered the best HW. Mac wasn't even considered the best guy with the last name Foster. Fulton never fought for a title because of a combination of WW1 and Jess Willard keeping the belt to himself. Foster never got a title shot because he didn't do enough to warrant one. In number one contender fights Fulton is 6-3-1. I'm counting the first Morris win, Langford, Weinartx2, Moran, McMahon here. Besides Ali was Foster ever in such fights? If one has Wills anywhere near the top of your list at HW you'd think Fulton would be there too. Fulton is the win that made Wills the pseudo champ that Dempsey was obligated to eventually fight. Wills 2nd best feat is probably KOing Langford and Fulton both stopped Langford earlier and never got knocked out by him.
ATG no. He got ko’d badly in his two biggest fights lasting under 20 seconds with Dempsey and 3 rounds with Wills. But he does have a hefty resume outside of losing those big ones. A really good contender that came up short against two greats. Kind of Povetkin level for his day. 3rd - 4th best heavy of his era.
Just for its own sake, see Fred as a guest on Jack Dempsey’s This Is Your Life episode (go to 10:40). Unless he had ill health otherwise, poor Fred’s speech sounds affected by his career in boxing. Allowing for age and a bit of stoop, his 6’5” listing appears very legit. What two perfectly fine gentleman they were - though tough as nails when appropriate and duly called for. We can bemoan the boxing footage we don’t have but still be thankful for golden sound and vision like this. This content is protected
I doubt many people have researched the records of HWs through history to the same extent as McGrain, who ranks Fulton #59 all time in that division. Top contender during his time, but not even close to an ATG.