That's a very typical weight for a light heavyweight, coming into a catch weight fight in Sharkey's day
Many of Sharkey's heavyweight opponents were no bigger than todays rehydrated light heavyweights so I think in terms of Caneo's era it makes more sense to think of Dempsey and Schmelling and Sharkey himself as light heavyweights because size-wise that's what they are. While Alvarez has not had many fights at 175 he has had plenty of fights at 168 which isn't far off light heavyweight
Well it wasn't a catchweight. A catchweight is a negotiated limit for a fighter that doesn't fall into the traditional weight-class limits. What you're LHWs were doing was bulking up because they knew it's very difficult to fight a HW at the LHW limit OR they weren't bothering to cut weight and fighting at their more natural weights. But in both instances, it must be remembered - these guys often had a return to LHW in their rear-view. Note that 186lbs was not particularly small for a HW in Sharkey's day. Here are the title-winning weights for the champs who went before Sharkey: Corbett - 178 Fitzsimmons - 167-175 Jeffries - 206 Hart - 190 Burns - 175 Johnson - 194 Willard - 238 Dempsey - 186 Tunney - 189 Schmeling - 188 Sharkey - 188 Kovalev - 185-192 Kovalev was as HW in Sharkey's day, and he wasn't a small one, not tiny anyway. Those two, in the ring together, would in no way shape or form be or appear odd. Furthermore, the only weights we have for Kovalev are his rehydrated weights. The same man, in 1920, probably never sees 175 and unbound from an artificial 24hr weigh-in would have been bigger, not smaller, with no need to train down. Again, I hate to say it, but anyone who thinks that Kovalev was meaningfully smaller than Sharkey doesn't understand weight-making in combat sports properly. None of this is controversial or strange. Kovalev would have been a HW in Sharkey's day and would have carried 200lbs with ease and Sharkey would have made 175lbs with relative ease in ours.
I don't other than being a lefty .. were talking the A versions and the A version of Sharkey was deeply vetted against world class talent and was outstanding ..
It's not about levels, it's about styles. I'm not saying Hunter is as good as Sharkey was, but he fights in a manner way closer to Sharkey than Usyk does. Most obviously in terms of head movement.
Sooo the way to beat the size Queen argument is to just say someone is more modern? Very interesting how height and weight go out the window when convenient. Height and weight always win < More Modern Is that the ranking in the size Queen mind now? Just trying to know how one should judge a hypothetical match up. I happen to think Canelo is a hell of a fighter and can win this based on his skill set. I think he would beat a lot of guys in the under 200 range. But Sharkey was no slow twitched bum. When he was old def but watch him against Dempsey. Nothing slow about him. I don’t think boxing hit its skills peak till late 30s. Since then not much has changed. Prior to that I do see flaws in Sharkey and Dempsey etc
Mickey Walker was more skilled and more proven against big guys than Canelo. He couldn't destroy Sharkey. Tommy Loughran was bigger and more skilled than Canelo. He got stopped in brutal fashion. Jack Dempsey was bigger and much more powerful than Canelo. Sharkey was winning the fight until illegal low blow. Max Schmeling was bigger, much more powerful and more skilled puncher than Canelo. He couldn't destroy Sharkey. Harry Wills was legit modern HW sized fighter and he dominated the HW division for over decade. Sharkey beat him cleanly.
I think Sharkey would win a clear decision over a tough like Canelo. Canelo likes to look at his guy, likes to learn him, and loves to trick and trap, which always impresses me, more over a 12 round fight than a 15 round fight, him and Taylor are both wonderful modern examples of this, but Sharkey will hold Canelo's punches. I don't think he'll be able to keep Sharkey much more than honest best-for-best. That means Sharkey controls the real-estate for the most part and he gets to deploy. Canelo would have pursue an exhausting disruptor strategy to win rounds IMO and I think the man who is used to out-monstering his opponents down the straight will be out-monstered himself. If it's 15 rounds I think Sharkey establishes a 4-1/5-0 lead early, wins three of the last five with the middle five up for grabs. So Sharkey clear and possibly wide.
I've one thing to add: this forum is indirectly very hard on professionalism and discipline. That is because mercurial fighters always get the benefit of the doubt in these "best v best" fantasy fights. Sharkey was inconsistent and flighty, even within fights he could be inattentive and patchy. Canelo is not. He is excellent in every round of every fight he fights, or fights to something approaching his best anyway, despite a layered tactical approach. He could cause Sharkey a whole lot more trouble than I outline above based upon Sharkey's own uncertainty. A trilogy might be very interesting, who knows.
Such a shame that you got banned. I also see that @White Bomber likes this post. I'd love to see him explaining why Schmeling, Walker, Dempsey and Loughran were all garbage.
Kovalev's in ring weight seems to straddle the point at which a fighter in Sharkey's day would see making light heavyweight as no longer being worth the effort. Sharkey might well have had a stint at 175 early in his career, had he fought in our era, but I think that realistically he is going to end up at cruiserweight. If you have a man whose best fighting weight is 200lbs, or perhaps even 205, you are not going to try to boil them down to light heavyweight. Indeed you might well bulk them up to 210-2015lbs, on the grounds that you could still boil them down to 199. I don't think that Sharkey was any smaller than Eddie Chambers to be honest.
I can't exactly deny it. Even so, you can point to a long run in Sharkey's career, where he was essentially only losing to the very best.
Sharkey was under 200 pounds generally for his best performances and even when older and past his prime still generally came into the ring under 200. With early weigh ins and rehydration he shouldn't have a big problem making light heavyweight given plenty of guys seem to rehydrate 20 pounds. He was 188 vs Wills, 196 vs Loughran, 192 vs Stribling
