Ali calling Jersey Joe Walcott the prettiest dancer in the ring

@Seamus Go on you peon.
“Is it possible to put into words how much you learnt from Jersey Joe Walcott” - “Nah, I still watch tapes of him today and I get chills because fighters today don’t know what they’re looking at.” - Buddy McGirt

 

Walcott was an awesome fighter, incredible counter punching skill and was better at hitting people with unexpected punches than almost any heavyweight.

 

Jersey Joe had some of the craziest, best footwork ever.

I used to try to do the Jersey Joe walk-off

 

Back befor a permanent injury I had alot of JJW footwork down pretty good

 

I love watching Walcott fight. He was the prototypical “ring technician.”

 

Walcott could have troubled Ali, especially the 70s version.

 

Hmmm... I wonder how much of Old Joe's career that Buddy witnessed firsthand, not the clipped highlights but entire fights, including the almost one-third of his fights that he lost. Cuz, these guys saw the journeyman at work...


San Francisco Chronicle, 11/30/47
"As a journeyman fighter (Walcott) who wants to stay in the business, he has learned to protect himself, even at the cost of displeasing the crowd."

Washington Evening Star, 12/6/47
"Joe Louis... today is wearing a tarnished crown which belongs on the fuzzy semibald head of Jersey Joe Walcott, 34-year old journeyman heavyweight and ebony-hued father of six children."

Plain Dealer 6/23/48
"(Walcott) only lately come to be recognized as a fair journeyman operator after 17 years of ring warfare."

Washington Evening Star 12/8/49
"Walcott doesn't have youth. He's older than Louis. Jersey Joe lacks the vicious, killing instinct which lifted Dempsey to the peak of popularity... He is, in short, a plodding journeyman heavyweight who had his night."

Burton Hawkins, Buffalo News, 7/30/48
(Walcott) He's a moderately talented, but extremely cautious- a 34-year old journeyman heavyweight who finds himself squarely in the championship picture strictly due to the mediocrity of his competition."

Milwaukee Journal, 6/22/48
"For Walcott is strictly a second rater, a journeyman boxer working at a trade."

Richmond Times Dispatch, 3/5/50
"The heavyweights are such a poor lot that a journeyman fighter (Walcott), who once quit the ring but came back to fight regularly, can make the No. 7 heavyweight look like a novice amateur scrapper."

Oregon Journal, 7/20/51
"His is a story- which for sheer drama- rivals that of another old man, Jim Braddock. The both hail from New Jersey and each was a journeyman for years without ever getting past first base in their race for fame and fortune."

Commercial Appeal, Memphis, 6/5/52
"Though he's an effective journeyman artilleryist, Walcott's style places heavy demands upon his legs as he jibs about in the manner of barefooted man on a sun-blasted tin roof."

 

Proof Ali dksab. Walcott was a journeyman.

 

JJW is crazy underrated. Pretty deep bag of tricks that are still used today.

 

If he was a journeyman he was an exceptionally skilled one. I think craftsman fits him better.

 

In fairness, a lot of journeymen are pretty flashy and skilled.

Still, Walcott did beat Bivins, Elmer Ray, Charles, and almost beat Marciano. I wouldn’t say he’s a journeyman.

 

I caught some grief here when I said Benny Paret was a journeyman.

 

Walcott beat Joe Louis, too, but didn't get the decision. Walcott won that 1947 fight decisively.

 

Walcott was a journeyman early on, probably fought some on an empty stomach, wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t tank a few fights because that went on back then.

He got a lot better. You can’t just look at the bottom line without context.