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

What to make of the Firpo win?

Firpo was coming off a win over Willard, so he was probably one of the two or three most qualified contenders, to meet the champion.

That aside he was a carefully managed contender, and I don't personally think that he was as good as Miske or Gibbons at their best.

 

I don't think he was as good as those two either. However, he was probably the most powerful hitter than Manassa Mauler ever faced. For that reason, I rank this win as a top 5 win.

 

Had Firpo beaten better names, I consider him top 5. One thing I've noticed on Dempsey, although he didn't face the best as champion and maintained the color line, his title opponents were a notch above his predecessors " white hope types " for sure.

 

What do you think about Brennan compared to Gibbons and Firpo? These 3 are my challengers for 5th spot.

 

Head to head, I think that Gibbons was slightly better than Miske, and Miske was slightly better than Brennan.

I think that Miske had the most quality wins at heavyweight of the three.

 

How about Firpo versus Gibbons and Brennan?

 

It is a difficult comparison because of styles, but I think that Firpo was a bit more dangerous than Brennan, but less so than Gibbons.

He arguably peaked slightly higher as a contender than either, after his win over Willard.

 

I'm not convinced by Gibbons because he didn't do much as a HW.

 

Yeah, I think I'd stay with Firpo as my 5th pick. The way Dempsey destroyed him was also quite spectacular, more so than Gibbons.

 

I disagree.

Gibbons is an example of somebody who took a small heavyweight route to title contention.

He fought small contenders, but he still beat the right ones.

Billy Miske for contrast was a small heavyweight, who mixed it up with the big boys, but Gibbons seems to have had his number.

 

He got Brennan at the right time, and Brennan was never as good as Miske or Gibbons.

That is a pretty darn good place to start and finish in my eyes.

I agree that Firpo's credentials as a title challenger were better, and I have basically said as much, but I think that Gibbons would have beaten him head to head.

If you want to know who was feared at the time, look at who Harry Wills had to fight in title eliminators.

He had to fight Fulton, Norfolk, and Firpo, and he was later asked to fight Gibbons and Tunney.

I am going to guess that these were the men seen as being most likely to eliminate him!

 

Miske was not that small. He was 6 feet tall and had a 76" reach with proven ability to beat bigger men such as Fulton, and Brennan.

Remove Dempsey, he sure could have been champion. I was hoping to find a Miske scribe which I am not. I think he's under rated.

 

I always thought rather highly of Miske.

 

Judging by his record and what other's said of him, Miske seems to have been an excellent contender. No real weaknesses.

What needs more attention is the extent of his illness. Some say at death's door for his third bout with Demspey but then he goes on to have a nice streak.

 

You also have to look at Miske's best fights.

He held Fred Fulton to a draw, when he was seen as being a very dangerous contender.

The title picture ended up looking like a three way argument between Fulton, Miske and Dempsey!