Harry Wills where do you rank him?

Of course he beat Jeanette, what do you mean?

 

If you took the trouble to read my post you will see that I only included Decision fights,this is because no decision fights are open to interpretation to suit a posters agenda,for example another poster states that OBrien "beat Johnson in a no dec fight ,which isnt the case.If you can show me where Wills beat Jeanette in a decision fight I will gladly retract my statement otherwise ,you are wrong .I dont really give a stuff either way to be honest,Ive only posted what Ive read,,have you additional info ?if so please share it with us.

 

I think a top 15 slot is waranted.

 

IMO, from roughly 1918 to 1924 there was not a better heavyweight in the world.

 

it's a shame his prime fights were not filmed , it would have been nuce to see the likes of Wills, etc

 

and yet he dose not seem to have been heavily hyped at the time as far as I can see. Not in the same way that Sam Langford was anyway.

 

Wills over Liston..... prepare for some severe attacks!


Then again, if he was the top heavyweight from 1918 to 1924 as mr Smith says, then that pretty much equals Liston who was the top heavyweight from 1958 to 1964.

 

Hi McVey,

Good post. Though, I have to make a point - you mentioned that
Wills was KOED by Battling Jim Johnson. In that fight, Wills was
forced to quit due to any injury to his arm.

Before you say that I am confusing this fight with the
Jack Johnson-Battling Jim Johnson fight, check out the
info on the Wills-Battling Jim Johnson fight and you
will see that Wills too suffered an arm injury versus
Battling Jim.



Grebfan9
www.firstroundboxing.com

 

You are right ,and I dont know why I didnt remember this as I discovered this for myself about a year ago ,put it down to age! Many thanks for the reminder.

 

Its hard to rate fighters without footage, but from what you read and common opponents I'd put Wills above Dempsey.

 

Wills above Sonny Liston and Mike Tyson? That is just ****ing bizarre.

 

Although he deserves a solid place in the Top 20, rating him ahead of Liston and Tyson is definitely going too far.

 

Wills main problem is big fights did not come his way when he was in his prime. If Wills prime was from 1918-1924 as KSmith says, we have to ask ourselves did he fight top guy in these years? By 1918, Jeanette and Langford were will past their best. Early on, McVey and Langford defeated Wills. It is interesting to note that McVey, who was not a polished boxer type, won two decisions over Wills. I get the hunch that McVey's power bothered Wills a bit and made him gun shy. Wills might have lacked a top chin, and some grit when the going got tough in terms of cuts, injuries, ect…

IMO, Wills best wins in his prime years from 1918-1921 were Fulton, Norfolk, and Fripo. While these are good wins, they are special wins.

While the Dempsey fight did not happen for Wills, he had many chances to fight the next best guy out there in George Godfrey. The fight was out there. Wills refused to fight Godfrey. Wills also had what seems to be a real chance to fight Gene Tunney according to the news papers. I read some stuff that said Wills would not fight Tunney, though it should be noted that by then Wills was past his best.

If Wills had beaten Godfrey, I’d rate him a bit higher. While I think Wills did some great work early by beating near prime versions of Langford, Jeanette, and Mcvey, he also lost to three journeyman ( Cotton, Johnson, and Tate ) and two of these matches happened via TKO. Top 15 for Wills is a bit high for me. Top 20-25 sounds about right. But in the end, we can say for sure without some film of Wills in his prime or near prime.

 

You can't really rate these old old timers with modern fighters. All you can do is rate them against guys from those days baring in mind that black fighters had the odds stacked against them. But you cant say he was better than Tyson or Liston.