Unpopular Opinion.Burns Gives Langford A Great Fight?

From late 1912 to early 1915 Smith pretty much cleaned out the white side of the division. In this period Smith went on a 26-3-2 run and lost to Carpentier by DQ in a fight he was about to win. By 1917 Smith was losing more then he won and by 1918 he was going 1-8 but he had 5 good years and 3 great ones. If you ignore the lack of a formal title Smith's run was better than Jeffries(much better than Jeffries) and Burns's runs were. So yes he's an ATG.

Part of why the "white" HW title was such a joke was that it was clearly Gunboat Smith. Then when he finally got the title he lost it by DQ to Carpentier who he was beating.