Mickey Walker vs Jack Sharkey, the best result in the history of gloved boxing?

How about Gans and 'Twin' Sullivan ?
Was that a stellar result ?

Anyone mention Philadelphia O'Brien v Jack Johnson yet ?

 

True.
That's the problem with these types of assessment. When a fighter gets to a certain level of amazingness, he's so overwhelmingly expected to do amazing things, that they don't amaze us as much as they ought to.

 

McGovern KO2 Gans has to rate pretty high.



(I know, I know)

 

I still can't wrap my head around this performance by Walker..

Sharkey had 30lbs on him & went on to beat Schmelling & Carnera.. that Walker beat & put 210lb Bearcat Wright on his arse right before this fight is nuts in itself .. Wright had beaten the likes of an old Jack Johnson, Sam Langford, Tiger Jack Fox & Chuck Wiggins.. he wasn't a great HW but still very capable & huge by comparison.. but to go on to draw with the future lineal HW champ too is other worldly..

Is it the best in boxing tho? No.. Bob fitzsimmons way back was doing crazy stuff.. at an advanced age too..

 

There's loads of examples.. heres one that stands out to me:

Jimmy McLarnin KO1 over the great southpaw Young Corbett III .. HOFer Corbett was world champion with a record of 101-8-22, and had been stopped twice, in his 3rd and 4th bouts when he was just 14 yrs old, so after that he was on a 127 bout streak without being KO'd. After getting annihilated by McLarnin in 1 he was good enough to post wins over future LHW greats Gus Lesnevich & Billy Conn, the number one rated MW & HOFer Fred Apostoli & ATG Mickey Walker.. Corbett stood just 5'5.

This is a very interesting discussion. I'd like to hear more examples..

 

Walker was a lot smaller than Jones .. he was averaging about 165lbs during his LHW & HW run until he started getting lazy & fat late in his career.. he was also 5'7 .. Jones bulked up to nearly 200lbs of muscle & had spent years weighing in at a lean 175lbs. He was also aided by PEDs in his career. Walker wasn't.

You can't compare Jones beating Ruiz here... Walker by the Sharkey fight had something like 130 fights.. that's a lot of wear & tear.. & had come all the way up from WW.. in fact only 3 years prior to the Sharkey fight he was still fighting at MW.. Jones hadn't been a MW for nearly 10 years..

As for your Valuev comment.. No the Haye win isn't one of the best ever.. because unlike HOFer Sharkey Valuev has almost zero skill & athleticism & wouldn't go on to beat Schmelling & Carnera.. two of ATG Louis' more noteworthy opponents.

Sharkey at his best would beat the snot out of Valuev.. Valuev was a sasquatch Sven Otke.. a terrible boxer who despite outweighing everyone by 100lbs still couldn't knock anyone out lmao .. Sharkey could actually box. Go ask HOFers Max Schmelling, Harry Wills, Young Stribling & Tommy Loughran.. & Primo Carnera .. Sharkey had the potential to be one of the greats he just wasn't consistent enough.

Also, you're talking about 100 years ago.. the fact that fighters still can't really replicate this kind of thing today even with all these so called advancements & evolution in boxing just shows what a great the likes of Walker was. Lets have Crawford taking on Bivol, Parker & Opetaia.. why not? Evolution n all that ..

 

Louis KO1 Schmeling is right up there too.. & vice versa.. Schmelling KO 12 a 24-0 prime Louis.. it wasn't a lucky KO win either, he was out thinking & outboxing Louis.. & crazily manager and promoter Tom o'Rourke died of a heart attack in Schmeling's dressing room shortly before the start of the bout too..

Those two have gotta be up there.

Salvador Sanchez beating Wilfredo Gomez is another... Gomez was undefeated and was on the longest KO streak in boxing including 14 in title bouts.