Anyone else think George Gardner under-rated? He beat Hart and Root, the two men chosen to fight for the vacant title post-Jeff. He beat good fighters like Byers, Moffat, Carter, Walcott, Handler. He went twenty with Jack Johnson, despite giving loads of weight(30 pounds) but is always hit for the loss to an old Fitz, but it was close perhaps even a wrong decision. He beat a number of good second rate heavyweights Weinig,Willie, old Maher, Jeffords etc. In reality he was a super-middleweight who mixed with the best Heavyweights. A downside to his legacy is his quick and relatively youthful fall from grace but he still stole a draw with the coming Jim Flynn and took Kaufman and Schreck into the later rounds. I think Root, McCoy, O'Brien, Choynski and yes Gardner are under-rated to-day, what do ye think?
Root and Gardner should have joined the others you mentioned in the IBHOF a while ago. I expect that to be corrected any year now.
They almost seem to have created an unoficial light heavyweight division before the division existed by matching one another. That having been said they were key players in the heavyweight rankings.
