Corbett Should Be InThe Top 20 All Time Because He Beat?????

I have Corbett's autobiography, he doesn't claim any worthwhile additional fights if I recall correctly.

 

Jeffries himself once said of Corbett, that he could have been the greatest ever, had he participated in more fights!

There are contemporary sources that suggest that Corbett had more fights, but we have to assume that if he did, they must have been against pretty low level opposition.

Head to head Corbett pretty much clowned everybody that he came up against, but the best punchers seem to have got him eventually.

He would likely have done significantly better, if he had fought in an era of shorter fights.

 

How well documented is his amateur fights?

On another note, do we know all the Olympic club champions. IIRC George M Robinson and Jack Munroe both were, which doesn't do wonders for the credibility of the title.

 

Thanks McVey ,Ive learned a lot from you.Im glad I found this place,its fun and I can learn a lot. I do have to watch those Heinekens.

 

Unsupported Speculation? Dempsey himself said he had over a hundred pro fights as did Jack Jackson when asked about how many fights he had.

I’d have to look for it, but an old Chicago Defender article I read from the late 40’s paying respects for Johnson, who had recently died had his fight record, which was well over 100 fights not counting exhibitions and even the article admitted that the record was incomplete.

As far as Dempsey I have every issue of Life Magazine from 1900 to 1945 and in the mid 20’s Dempsey said in an interview that he had over 100 fights.

That said my point was that the sport of boxing was in a very unstable state pre 1920 in the United States, which is why a lot of fights sometimes went unrecorded. Charley Goldman talked about how on a whim the local authorities would sometimes tolerate sanctioned boxing matches only to crash the venue, which would often result in matches not being officially recorded and of course the boxers not getting paid. I seen this first hand with MMA back in 2005-2007, since the California State Athletic Commission would sanction fighting events, but midway during the event would send the authorities in and fine the promoters, which often resulted in guys, who won their matches not having it recorded on their record.

 

I will attempt a counterargument to these points:

1. Corbett fought his early fights, in what I call "the era of forgotten men." None of us had a clue about the significance of Sullivan's resume, until Adam went to work on it in earnest.

2. Only fair to note, that nobody could give this alcoholic, fat, nearly 34 champion a competitive fight previously. Even during his tour of Austria, he was wowing the crowds, and having to go easy on Joe Choynski in sparring!

3. That is perhaps not to devastating an indictment, when it was done by this 160lb fighter!

4. No counterargument!

 

I wouldn't be surprised if there was just never any record of a lot of his amateur fights

 

I think most of his amateur bouts or "matches," if you will, were at his gentleman's club in San Francisco. That he went as far as he did says a lot about the state of boxing in the early gloved era. It was early days, indeed. No knock on any of the boxers then. It's just a fact. Corbett was one of those men who got the ball a'rollin.' It didn't take long for the sport to really take off, after that. He may have been in the Top 20 in terms of his influence on boxing's development, at that. Not a bad legacy.