How good would Joe Gans be today?

I know some class the sport as different back then and to a degree I do agree. I couldn't really imagine Fitzsimmons or Corbett flourishing despite being considered as geniuses.

However some old timers still look the goods to me and Joe Gans is one of them. His reflexes and power surely make him a standout above most his peers who came after him and his ring IQ and intelligence was almost unparalleled.

Aside from Langford and McGovern he essentially avenged every defeat he suffered. The McGovern fight was a blatant fix and the Langford fight was in questionable circumstances also so I wouldn't say either could claim to be his superior tbh.

Given a same day weigh in, how do you see him faring against his peers as a LW? I personally think he's top 5 h2h at the weight and to put that in perspective it means I favour him over the likes of Mayweather, Chavez, Arguello, De La Hoya and Mosley, provided the weigh in is same day.

I do think he looks incredible and that puts him in a small category of old timers who still pass the eye test.

 

And a marvel he certainly was, anticipating most moves and countering with spite.

 

I get what you're saying and I do completely agree with every word.

I'm saying beyond that, Gans actually looms good enough on film to be the best LW in the world today.

The same can't realistically get said about Fitz or Corbett.

 

Yeah but LW is an absolute waste ground right now. Aside from Crawford we haven't had a world class LW since Marquez and he doesn't look nowhere near as slick as Gans did nor does he look to punch with as much power and accuracy (aside from the Pacman shot).

With more footage we might think Gans the superior of Benny Leonard or Whittaker but on what I've seen I feel quite comfortable picking him over most who came after him.

 

When Jorge Linares is the best in the world, you know the division is in trouble.

Lomachenko has huge potential but the way he looked a bit hapless against Salido makes me doubt his talent somewhat. Walters doesn't look good, he looks huge a bit like Rios and Segura was at LW, but as we saw with Segura and Rios, moving up in weight greatly diminishes your advantages.

Gans would surely be outsized against any Welter today despite him having a very legit claim to the crown himself in the division. But make a man weigh the same as him and I don't see many men beating him.

 

It's not so much I hold it against Loma, but does it mean any big FW could bully him around for the first 8 rounds? I mean Salido has been soundly outboxed only twice in his career that I've seen and that was against Marquez and Gamboa so he is a tough customer and one of the best feathers of recent years, but Loma I supposed to be ATG potential.

I tend to think pre 20's the talent drops off significantly bar a few men. Langford, Gans they still look insanely talented as does Jack Johnson and some others. But yeah its a great thing that some have been able to stabd the test of time.