Best five wins from the best contenders

contender of the day

Tommy Gomez

1----Phil Muscato
2----Freddie Schott
3----Gunnar Barlund
4----Johnny Flynn
5----Buddy Knox

Others--Tony Musto, Buddy Scott. Decisions over smaller Teddy Yarosz and Tommy Tucker.

Gomez has an imposing stat record of 78-9-2 with 67 KO's. Because of that stat record, he was selected by The Ring as one of their top 100 punchers in all weight classes. He obviously could punch, but his victim list is far short of contender contemporaries such as Turkey Thompson or Lee Savold. There is a reason for his uninspired resume. Gomez was a Floridian and had I think all but two fights in Florida. Florida did not allow mixed matches back then and so he mainly fought only white opponents. That closed off a lot of top talent by the late 1940's. Gomez's two trips out of Florida were for losses to Jersey Joe Walcott in New York and Bob Satterfield in Chicago. Fighting in the deep South, away from the main boxing action, he also didn't meet most of the top white guys, like Mauriello, Baksi, Maxim, and Savold, and lost to the one he did fight, Lee Oma.

So an interesting fighter perhaps better remembered for his heroic war record. He was badly wounded in WW2.

At most a second-tier guy whose best win was the KO of fellow second-tier guy Phil Muscato. One other interesting victim though. Gomez at 5' 10" and 185 lbs, stopped the 7' 1" and 295 lb. Ben Moroz.

 

OK, let's give this a go

Sam McVea

1) Sam Langford
2) Joe Jeanette
3) Harry Wills
4) Jeff Clark
5) Battling Jim Johnson

Razor Ruddock

1) Mike Weaver
2) Michael Dokes
3) Greg Page
4) Bonecrusher Smith
5) Phil Jackson

 

Sam McVea

1----Sam Langford
2----Harry Wills
3----Joe Jeannette
4----Denver Ed Martin
5----Colin Bell

Others--Jeff Clark, Sandy Ferguson, Arthur Pelkey. One of the more impressive top fives and a contender for the top ten top fives.

Razor Rudduck

1----Mike Weaver
2----Michael Dokes
3----Bonecrusher Smith
4----Greg Page
5----James Broad

Others will know more about this era, but for me not a list to contend for a top ten placement.

 

I went with Phil Jackson over James Broad for 5th place. Broad was the larger name (no pun intended) but was beginning his spiral, having lost 4 out of his last 5, whereas Jackson was 25-0 and on his way to a title shot with Lennox Lewis. So I thought that was a brilliant win.

 

I'm going to sit out Sam McVea and Tommy Gomez. I just don't know enough about those eras.

Razor Ruddock:
1. Michael Dokes - This was a pretty major bout at the time. Dokes was coming off the Holyfield fight and considered a top-3 contender, along with Holyfield and Ruddock. I think it was a PPV card. After this fight I thought that Mike Tyson was afraid of Ruddock and that's why he pulled out of their fight scheduled for the previous autumn. I thought Ruddock would steamroll Tyson (this was after Tyson's loss to Douglas). Tyson proved me wrong the following year.
2. Bonecrusher Smith - The gap between 1 and 2 is pretty large. I rate the Smith win over the Weaver win because Smith had two wins over Weaver during this time period. Additionally, Ruddock's victory over Smith was more convincing than his victory over Weaver.
3. Mike Weaver - Weaver was in his hot-and-cold period. His best days were behind him.
4. Phil Jackson - Ruddock stops an undefeated rising contender. I could put Jackson at #2, but his career didn't really pan out after the Lennox Lewis loss, so he's demoted.
5. Larry Alexander - Alexander had a decent 8-year run going starting in 1981, losing only to 13-1 James Broad and 14-1 Orlin Norris in close fights. Ruddock kayoing him in 2 is a nice result.

For as high as I was on Ruddock after the Dokes fight, he has a surprisingly shallow win resume.

 

Razor Ruddock
1 Bonecrusher Smith
2 Dokes
3 Weaver
4 Jackson
5 Page

 

contender of the day

Tom Heeney

1----Johnny Risko
2----Jim Maloney
3----Jack Delaney
4----Bartley Madden
5----Jose Santa

Heeney had an in and out career. His overall record is an unimposing 37-22-8 with 15 KO's in 68 fights. He career was nondescript before an abrupt run to top contender status in 1927 and 1928 when in five straight fights he defeated Risko, Maloney, and Delaney, and drew with Uzcudun and Sharkey. This earned him a title shot against Tunney. He was stopped in a one-sided fight. The rest of his career was mainly losses as he slipped into opponent status.

All in all, a rather unimpressive contender, although peaking at the time of his title shot. I can't help feeling it was unfortunate that Sharkey, Godfrey, or Uzcudun didn't fight Tunney instead. All would have been more of a test.

 

Corrie Sanders

1----Wladimir Klitschko
2----Carlos DeLeon
3----Ross Puritty
4----Johnny Nelson
5----Bobby Czyz

Tommy Morrison

1----George Foreman
2----Razor Ruddock
3----Carl Williams
4----Pinklon Thomas
5----Joe Hipp

My lists, but I'll be very interested in what those who know more about this era think and vote. Both of these men have their reps based on their #1 wins. Clearly Sanders has the more impressive #1 win, but Morrison appears to me to have the better top five.

 

Sanders
1 wladimir
2 de leon
3 du plooy
4 Alfred cole
5 Mike mercury williams

 

1 Foreman
2 Ruddock
3 Carl Williams
4 Hipp
5 Pinklon

Except Hipp all past prime

 

This is a...different kind of group. By that I mean a lot of retreads.

Tommy Morrison

1) George Foreman
2) Razor Ruddock
3) Carl 'The Truth'
4) Joe Hipp
5) Pinklon Thomas

The inclusion of Hipp, Thomas and - just outside the group - Tillis, will tell you how thin this is. Thomas and Tillis were getting beat up by this stage of the game and Hipp snuck in there with some average wins.

Corrie Sanders

1) Wlad
2) Bert Cooper
3) Ross Purrity
4) Johnny DuPlooy
4) Carlos DeLeon

Outside of Wlad, I'm underwhelmed.