He probably should rate over Walker at the weight, considering they fought their series when he was 37 or so going 1-1 and doing more at the weight
If you ranked him above Leonard, you would get no dispute from me. I think he has the deeper ledger at 147 and that's inarugable, but he does also have more losses than Leonard and Leonard is one of the most incredible welters of all on film. Although my impression of Brittons skillset isn't that far behind my breakdown of Leonards, theres no question that those skills have a visceral impact.
Thanks for bumping that. Sounds like O' Dowd's "victory" over Greb was close and disputed. It's still a big feather in O' Dowd's cap that he could be competitive and arguably beat Greb, regardless of the circumstances.
Despite there being no film? :huh Leonard was a progression in terms of being such an athletic boxer, pretty much unprecidented for boxing up to that point, more athletic than even Robinson who was a progression for his time
This is reasonable, and I concur. Hearns demonstrated that SRL could be out boxed at 147, and Jack had the skill to do this. (Where Tommy is concerned, Jack had 20 round stamina, and he could score knockouts and knockdowns when needed, as Lewis and Walker found out. Britton could also get up to win.)
:happy Peerless Jim, master, had fighters begging at his toes for a drop of his pugilistic wisdom. He's like the mould breaking specimen that preceeded Pernell Whitaker.
Where does Willie Ritchie rate as a pioneer of the sport? I can't think of any other early 1910's fighter who would throw 6 or 7 punch combinations like he did. He beat the old time rough and tough Ad Wolgast this way. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8gwtfcRk64[/ame]
Can be placed in the top five. I have him placed a little lower, put have no complaints if someone has him higher. I'd put Robinson and Walcott as the top two with Leonard third. Gavilan, Napoles, Rodriquez, Griffith, Armstrong and Britton are all pretty close.
I tend to think of him as a middleweight, and in fact that's how issboxWRECK designates Ryan, while recording Hearns as a welterweight. (They also have Walker entered as a welterweight.)
