Had he lived would Luther McCarty have beat jack Johnson ?

Most around at the time considered him the real deal and the best of the White Hopes. Some were not as impressed. He seemed to be the best physical specimen. Not a terribly hard hitter, he threw a decent jab and was learning on this job. He was so young when he passed, his best days were likely far in front of him.

 

The reports from the Moran fight were not overwhelmingly endorsing. Comments on him pushing his punches and having little steam on them. BUT, he was in great shape and out-stamina'd his opponent.

 

Nobody but Dempsey beats prime Johnson

 

The McCarty-Palzer fight was filmed. McCarty and his manger Billy McCarney toured around with it for about two months.

Luck was only 21 years old when he died, so it was really too soon to tell if he was on track to fight Johnson. The timing was right since Johnson was in exile at the time and not training regularly, but it partly depends how on aggressive McCarney would have been in chasing Johnson all over the world. McCarty fought Willard to a newspaper draw, and he seems to have been a better all-around athlete than Jess. I'm guessing McCarty had more room for improvement, but it's just that, a guess. Chances are he never would have had to fight Langford, Jeannette, or McVey prior to taking on Johnson. There would have been no need since Johnson was pretending they didn't exist. He was looking for white meat as far as opponents go. My gut feeling is that if he had developed into a fighter good enough to defeat Willard he would have had a good chance to defeat Johnson in a 20-round fight in 1915-17. McCarty would have been 23-25 years old and Jack 37-39.

Note: I had originally written that the McCarty-Pelkey fight was filmed. I confused Pelkey's name with Palzer's. Thor Odinson brought this to my attention.

 

Jim Johnson had a good go of it. Most booed that result. O'Brien did well for a 6 rounder. Which means unnumbered latter day fighters could have turned the trickm

 

Whilst in exile Johnson offered to defend against McCarty in Canada,the fight to be promoted by Tommy Burns.Burns had different ideas as he wanted McCarty to fight his latest meal ticket Pelkey.

 

Quit possibly.

He probably had the highest potential ceiling of all the white hopes, including Willard himself.

If he had been managed correctly, his prime would have come around the time that Johnson was ready to be taken.

 

The oft repeated story is that he was thrown from a horse some time before the fight and injured his head, which disposed him for the fatal injury that occurred in the ring.

 

You are quite correct. What I meant to say was the McCarty-Al Palzer fight during which Luther won the "white heavyweight championship."
Thank you. To avoid further confusion for other readers, I am going to edit my comment, but your correction will be noted.