Where do you rank him? A little difficult with the ND era and the war but victories over Ritchie, Leonard, White, Dundee, Driscoll, Wolgast, Rivers are quite impressive. Granted, he lost to some of these guys also but he arrived at the title a bit late. Does he crack your Top Ten?
He's up there with the best, but lightweight is such a packed division historically. There's a lot of names who might seem good enough to get in the top 10 but there's not enough places. Welsh may or may not make teh cut. Even being #20 all-time lightweight probably puts a fighter at an exceptional level, more than almost any other division.
not quite. but that's no knock on him, he looks effective on film and has one of the best wins in the division.
I pretty much agree with this post and would go as far to say that any fighter who is even the 40th best lightweight of all time is a phenomenal fighter, top 60 even, this is one really packed division. Welsh is a very great fighter, where does he rank ?? too hard to pinpoint really, I would rank Benny Leonard, Joe Gans, Roberto Duran, Ike Williams, packey McFarland, Young Griffo, dare I say it (and I really hate to) Floyd Mayweather, Tony Canzoneri, Barney Ross, Henry Armstrong above Welsh and Carlos Ortiz too I'd say probably Battling Nelson to and I think Pernell Whitaker could beat him but would say his resume is better than Sweet Peas. I would rank Welsh ahead of some great lightweights too like Jimmy Carter and Joe Brown and Beau Jack and Bob Montgomery and Esteban DeJesus. I would hate to start trying to rank him in head to head fights with every one I named and yes I have missed some but I feel comfortable in saying Welsh would beat his fair share of them