Between the retirement of Gene Tunney in 1928 and the Emergence of Joe Louis in 1937 5 men held the heavyweight championship. What order would you rank those men in terms of resume. Chronological order: Schmeling (1 title defense) Sharkey (0 successful title defenses) Carnera (2 title defenses) Max Baer (0 successful title defenses) James j Braddock (0 successful title defenses)
I'm not sure where to place Baer. I can see a case from 2 to 4 for him now. Although there was a time I would never put Carnera ahead of him. I still probably can't but I do place Sharkey above him now. Outside of Schmeling who I believe is 1 the rest save Braddock are interchangeable to me
Sharkey has some very quality wins - Loughran who was in middle of huge win streak. And he stopped him. Wills- past prime but he had yet to be exposed. Sharkey dominated him Godfrey - very solid win. Carnera - perhaps slightly underrated win given how Carnera is getting a little more due in today's age. Schmeling a win in name only. ------- Baer- has a solid win on Schaaf The best win - in stopping Schmeling Another solid win in stopping Carnera who injured his ankle with Max's first thunderous right. Both have very dubious losses to lose the title with no title defenses Baer to Braddock - where Baer looks absolutely awful. To the point where I really don't know if he was motivated to win that fight. Sharkey to Carnera- a fight speculated as a Dive for decades up to modern times.
And Braddock ended up with some form of "piece of the action" payout of a number of Joe Louis' future fights. As Ali used to kid Howard Cosell: "Hey, your aren't as 'dumb' as you look".
Baer was very impressive, in his final assault upon the summit of the division. He left it in no doubt who the best heavyweight in the world was. Sharkey's resume has deceptive depth. If you rate heavyweight champions, by the number of ranked contenders they beat, then he is surprisingly high on the list. So pick your poison!
His only mistake, was accepting ten years at the cut off point. Surely no champion would ever reign for longer than that right?
Thats a good list IMO. I might move Baer up one or two but hes so hard to figure. Braddock was easily the worst. Not a lot of daylight between the top 4 IMO.
I would clearly put Risko over Braddock. Risko beat ALOT of good fighters. Thing was he would also lose to them. He also was very durable. I'd put Risko over Chuvalo as a great "gatekeeper" type