Best five wins thread. Lineal / Ring Magazine heavyweight champions.

Herald was very highly regarded, and was seen as the heir apparent to Sullivan's throne by many.

His record after Sullivan beat him, might lead you to think that he had been over rated.

The guy could clearly crack, and was the Ernie Shavers figure of the era.

 

Ah Herald was nothing, even got knocked-out by Denny Kelleher. Beat nobody of note excepy maybe Conley and then lost to Lannon etc.

 

Whilst that is true, it's only true in a technical sense.

We have to be cautious with things such as this.

The whole anyone over 158 is a Heavyweight and name value trumps anything else is dangerous when somewhere down the line people are going to be arguing that Lewis beating Tyson means nothing.

Also after he won the championship, the LHW division begun to gain enough prestige that it was recognised, even if just as a stepping stone.

 

Up until the Creedon fight Fitz was a bona-fide small MW champion.

Choynski could be considered a superior victory though,but I'm not entirely sold, but I actually love tales of these giant slayings.

Burley did the same, twatted someone a hell of a lot a bigger and I give him lots of credit for that also.

 

I couldn't bring myself to finish Harts list tbh, it was depressing me.

The Fitz that lost to Johnson would have beaten a lot of the guys that Johnson later beat imo. But I love Fitz so I'm slightly biased.

 

I think that his credentials stacked up better when he fought Willard.

Perhaps that is going to be his chance to shine!

 

Didnt Fitz fight Johnson with a broken/injured arm, announcing it to the crowd, before the bout?

Or was that just a myth?

 

Hart is actually a pretty interesting one. (though obviously not great in quality)

Root is the obvious one that put him on the map. Root was in pretty good form winning most fights, although George Garnder seemed to ahve his number.

Choynski had to be a good one. He wasnt winning everything but he also wasnt too far removed from his win over Johnson. which certainly held up as a good win.

ON paper, Jack O Brien, Sandy Ferguson and Ruhlin were probably the best wins, though according to boxrec, the O brien win may not have been that comfortable. Maybe the past prime win over Jack twin Sullivan deserves a ranking.

Root, Choynski, O Brien Ferguson Ruhlin

 

He injured his left sparring with Jeanette, and it became infected.

I will dig up more details.

 

It's true,he had injured it in sparring with Jeannette, and had to have fluid drained from it.
Both the referee and Fitz made statements about it in the ring prior to the fight starting.

 

If we rank the best wins, shouldn't the way fight was one also be counted? Martin, Burns and McVea were better than Moran and they got beaten in more dominant fashion - that makes these fights better wins than Moran to me.

 

Moran was outclassed by a flabby 222lbs Johnson.

"The battle was hard fought, but Johnson won easily. Moran was game and stubborn and did most of the leading. Johnson's superior skill was effective and his upper-cutting wore Moran down and won the contest. . . . There were no knockdowns, or anything resembling a finishing blow in the fight. At the close Moran's face was bleeding from a cut under the nose and left eye. Johnson showed no marks."

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=7EwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3748,4631737&hl=en

 

Before first Johnson fight Martin was stopped only once by Armstrong in his first listed fight. He was 15-1-1 with multiple wins over the best black fighters in the world at that time. He was the best black contender before Johnson beat him.
Moran was stopped 3 times before losing to Johnson in comparison.

McVea already beat Russell, Carter and Martin before Johnson's 2nd loss. He was seen as very strong contender despite his age. It's possible that he had more fights than listed on boxrec, you know that boxrec is not perfect about fighters from that era.

As I said befofe, you only look at first Martin fight. Johnson beat him twice.

Martin from first fight was far better opponent than Moran and he faced better version of Johnson.