ATG 175lb Puncher's Tier list -3) Roy Jones 4) Jack Delaney

I think Jack Delaney is another underrated/undercelebrated LHW, where I rank him #12 all time, despite the fact he only contested 25 of his fights in the weight range I consider for that division, losing just once, to Paul Berlenbach, a defeat he avenged twice, in addition to wins over Tommy Loughran, Maxie Rosenbloom, Mike McTigue & Tiger Flowers.

Delaney scored 43 x stoppage wins in 87 fights for a KO ratio that is near as dammit 50%. A couple of stoppages over Berlenbach, albeit 1 over a green version down at MW, are impressive, as are 2 x stoppages over Tiger Flowers & 1 over Mike McTigue, though as you allude to, Flowers was a natural MW & McTigue not a fully fledged LHW. Otherwise, he tended to fail to stop world & fringe world class LHWs.

It's always more difficult, & there is less certainty, assessing the attributes of fighters from around this era were film is scant. Based on his record I think Jack is borderline puncher/respectable & I'm really struggling to get off that fence.

I suppose that, regrettably, given I went respectable for Gibbons, who has a similar record from a power perspective, I'll vote respectable for Jack, too, for consistencies sake. Those are 2 x great, underrated LHWs & boxers, though.

 

Maybe a controversial take - but I think Roy's power at Light Heavyweight was moreso on the "respectable" side. Let's say high-respectable.

He could hit guys with shots They wouldn't see coming, obviously his speed was huge factor - but many pretty ordinary(for historical standards) contenders still went the distance with him. I remember him hitting Richard Hall - in particular - with everything.. and Roy only forced a merciful standing stoppage from the referee in the 11-th round.

 

Hall was tough he had two brutal wars with Dariusz Michalczewski.

RJJ was also playing with Hall for most of the fight until the end when he decided to put some real hurt on Hall.

I don't think you could say RJJ only had respectable power after what he did to Griffin and Hill, theres not many more scary/brutal KO's than those two at Light Heavyweight.

As for average contenders going the distance with RJJ like who ? Julio Cesar Gonzalez wasn't average, he ended Dariusz Michalczewski's 48-0 20+ title defences reign.

Reggie Johnson was a very talented fighter who was never stopped in his career, and won titles in two weightclasses and RJJ had him down twice.

Even Del Valle was never stopped in 44 fights.

As I said I think at times RJJ carried his opponents and if he was really motivated like he was vs Griffin in their rematch he could've stopped them.

 

Wow....huge crowd that went away disappointed.
I'd like to see the fight at normal speed, otherwise Gibbons comes across as an older Octopus Okolie. Yes I know he has a very impressive record, but he looked seriously crude here. His fights with Greb must have been brutal.

 

It's fair. I won't argue if someone calls him a puncher, to me He falls somewhere between those 2 categories. He was stopping some very durable opponents, quite quickly too - at 160 and 168 and I don't believe He was able to make the same damage against bigger guys at Light Heavy, in any case.

Yes, I think for historical standards there are pretty average-ordinary contenders. What I mean is that They are not bad, but also not great for a fighter to be challanging the undisputed or lineal champion. Respectable would probably be better word.
Reggie was excellent at 160 - at 175 moreso still solid and as for the other 2. Gonzalez certainly caught Michalczewski at the right time. Del Valle had very good skills, but was a bit lazy in the ring.
Guys like Hall and Telesco were certainly tough - but limited. Also as for Virgil Hill - I think it was a classic "speed" knock-out. Griffin stoppage was probably the most impressive and a sign that You could be right by pointing out that if Roy was more motivated and aggressive, He could've stopped some of those guys quicker.

 

Whilst I voted puncher for RJJ, as I feel it was his (at times) lack of an aggressive approach, rather than lack of his 1-punch power when he committed to really letting a shot go, his 10 stoppage wins in 25 fights contested at LHW, does support your position as a reasonable stance.

 

Perhaps, although I wouldn't use that argument to support my position. Don't think it's fair to take into consideration anything beyond Tarver fights.
9 stoppages in 15 fights won (From McCallum to Tarver I, 10 kos/16 wins if We count Merqui at a catchweight) is solid.

 

Delaney is an underrated puncher, for mine.

Like Tommy Gibbons (and probably to a much greater extent), he was appreciated more as a boxer than a puncher; the difference being that Gibbons would develop a reputation for being a puncher and is known to have honed his power (quite likely for the purposes of gaining such a reputation, one might guess), albeit that this was demonstrated, in the main, against modest opposition.

Other than his twin KOs of Flowers, Delaney's stoppage of Berlenbach counts for something. While still a light Heavyweight, he also took out the 200lb Bud Gorman in 2 rounds with successive right-hands.

I am inclined to give Delaney the benefit of any doubt here and tag him as 'Puncher', alongside Gibbons.

Delaney = 'Puncher'