In which division would Jack Sharkey fight today?

Sure, I agree with your conclusion. I just don't think Hunter would dwarf Sharkey, that's all. Jack faced quite a few fighters around that size (or bigger) and he did fairly well. So even though he was smaller than Hunter, I think he'd fare well against Hunter-sized opponents.

Of course HWs are bigger now, so it doesn't mean that Sharkey would be able to compete at HW for the whole career, that's extremely unlikely. CW is within the rational probability though.

 

I believe the premise of this thread is to imagine Jack Sharkey as something different than what he was. For the purposes of answering the OP's original question, we have to imagine Jack born around the year 2000 and growing up from there. We can speculate as to how different he might be, but "different" is a given.

I suggest that he would become a larger man than what he was, under modern conditions. What effect that would have on him is open for debate. It COULD be that making Light Heavyweight would be more of a struggle than he could manage. Cruiser Weight would be more possible, but moving to Heavyweight later is equally possible. We can debate if he'd be any good at any weight today, but I suspect the talent would be there to make a career at Heavyweight. How successful that career would be is an interesting problem to contemplate.

 

He’d pick up a strap at bantam but he really isn’t big enough for feather.

 

Is today Sharkey's birthday? Why the sudden interest in this guy?

 

Ah! In that case...

 

It's not a big deal, but Zsolt Erdei did fight at cruiserweight.

 

He would work concessions.

 

You are right, when was the WBC ever a big deal?

 

This is a well argued point. However, I don't completely agree.

Let's begin where we have common ground: I admit as well as you do that Sharkey would not be best served at heavyweight. I think, commenting on size alone, he'd be outgunned even by the likes of Joseph Parker, who isn't one of the bigger heavyweights we have today.

Comparing him to Kovalev gets dicey because Kovalev was weighing in at 178 up to the age of 25. As he was consolidating his championship status, Kovalev was recorded to have in-the-ring weights of 181, 183, 185 for Sillah, Agnew, and Caparello, respectively. The lattermost of which was at the age of 31. Though he would go on to weigh 3-4 pounds more, to my knowledge, he's never gone past 189, and would summarily settle back to 185 or so.

Sharkey, if he were born in the 80's or 90's, would be larger today compared to the one that actually existed. If he were transported as an adult into the modern era, I think it's likely he picks up a belt as a light heavyweight. But to say he would spend his entire career at that weight like Kovelev did? I just don't see that happening.

Also, prime Michael Hunter Jr. did not gain weight in-between in his prime against Usyk, he lost it. Usyk, himself was only 207 in their meeting. A 226 Hunter is the same as a 226 Sharkey, or even a 226 Kovalev. Packing on pounds for the sole sake of 'making heavyweight' is simplicity itself.

 

I think people are way to determinist when they talk about these things.

Guys can and do have quite a bit of ability to control their weight. The Jack Sharkey that hits the weights at an early age, and goes on a few cycles looks very different than the one that decides to cut down to the lowest division possible.

Fighters don't always get it right either, and sometimes do better once they change division.

 

which is precisely what ALL People would do in any given period of History that they are in... not that it is even possible of course

you can't be a 1920's person with a 2000's (or any other time), person's State of Mind, Practises or Psyche.

We ALL do as each other, as our peers, as is "the Way of the Current Age"...

hence Big fellas Would NEVER be in Lower Divisions then, just because they are today or in recent Era's.

Thank you.