How good were the white hopes?

I guess anyone of them might beat Braddock, Leon Spinks, Hart or maybe even Burns, Carnera or Baer? Or WILLARD?!
McCoy i dont consider a white hope even if he did defeat Stewart.

 

Was the belief that Smith would have beaten McCarty one held widely at the time? Without film, it is hard to judge now who would have won such a match. Smith was peaking and would defeat Willard and edge Langford in a questionable decision, but McCarty seemed to be on an upward trajectory which potentially might have seen him level off far higher than Smith.
Clouding the issue is that many of McCarty's victories, while judged impressive at the time, were over men who quickly faded. Morris and Moran are not in this class, however.

I have read a lot on boxing over the years and the phrase the "best of the White Hopes" is applied again and again to McCarty. I have hardly ever, if ever, heard it applied to Smith when judging the entire era with McCarty in the mix.

 

Dillon and McCoy were super-middleweights. I doubt if either is likely to be champion in any era outside of a real fluke. Smith has a better chance, but only if he catches a weaker champion on a real off night. McCarty? Who knows? Many expected him to be champion in his own time if he had been luckier. There were some who saw him who judged him as potentially better than Jeffries or Dempsey. Without film to provide conflicting evidence, I have to conclude he may have been the real thing.

 

"Clouding the issue is that many of McCarty's victories, while judged impressive at the time, were over men who quickly faded. Morris and Moran are not in this class, however."
Do you think Morris beats Super-middleweights Dillon and McCoy?
And Moran may be boxings greatest over-achiever. In fairness to McCarty he could only beat them and well. He simply was unproven.

 

I think McCoy and Dillion fought just under the light heavy weight limit, and either man would be a slow and less than skilled Morris.

McCarty could have been hyped product of the times. I'm not sure how good he was. I tend to think a man of his size and reported talent should have had enough to better another super middle weight sized fighter in Jeff Clark. Yet Clark took the news decsion.