Obviously sharkey fought better opposition could explain the losses . but overall who would you say had more power and was the better fighter? Multiple votes allowed.
I don't find a lot of basis for either contention. Sharkey was seen as fairly rudimentary for his time but improving as he went along.
Sullivan was obviously a far better fighter than Sharkey, and a better finisher. It is possible that Sharkey hit harder, but I doubt it.
The reason I sat this is because the sport was evolving quickly at that time and they were learning new technical skills all the time and Sharkey was after Sullivan so I feel that he was in a slightly different era, but they had learned lots in the time between Sullivan and Sharkey
They were very different eras, but there is no evidence that boxing techniques had improved significantly. Even if they had, Sullivan was praised as a technician by many, while Sharkey was seen as being as crude as you got at world level.
I look at the same time difference, but from Johnson to the Tunney era and boxing had evolved quite a bit and I just assume it did from Sullivan to Sharkey era too
Joe Choynski said he saw Sullivan live and that Sullivan was a far harder hitter than he was .. considering what a monster puncher Choynski was that says a lot ..
Sullivan was rightly considered a revelation in his day. The gap between he and the best contenders was as great as it has ever been in the division's history. His lifestyle ruined the great talent he possessed. In his prime, he would have eaten Corbett alive. I think he would have likely battered Fitz, given Fitz's style. I think Jeffries and Johnson would have posed the first real challenges to him, McVea and Jeanette included.
The thing about Sullivan was that the man for the most part was never even trained to learn how to box .. he pretty much was born with some terrific natural skills .. he was very fast, he was very strong, he had the killer instinct, he took a terrific punch , he had stamina and the punch was indisputable .. this was a man that knocked men cold for over a decade.
Pretty much everybody who fought Sullivan, either went into survival mode, or got annihilated. He was a much more dangerous puncher than Sharkey, and probably more dangerous than Jeffries as well.
I think if anything is universally agreed upon regarding Sullivan it's that his punch was lethal .. the man crushed people .. I think he was a far harder one shot hitter than Jeffries ..I think he was a pound for pound slugger on the level of a Satterfield or a Jackson .. the man was a monster puncher ..
