Is Harry Wills Overated?

No.

Wills resume is huge in terms of volume of wins over curent world class fighters.

In this respect he is up there with Louis and Ali.

He is enjoying a bit of a renaisance on this site but outside of this ring he is cronicaly and criminaly underrated.

 

I've always thought basically the same thing. I think Wills gets a bit overhyped. His reputation was built largely from the notion that Dempsey was avoiding him (which very well may have been true). As you said, he made his name by beating Sam Langford multiple times, but Langford was a shopworn old vertern by that time, and Langford still knocked him out in a couple of their early fights before he simply got too old. IMO, Sharkey exposed him when he nearly chased him out of the ring. I suppose by that time Wills may have been past his own prime, but he was still considered Dempsey's feared top contender and there really wasn't anyone dismissing him as "old" or "washed up" going in.

 

Overrated by some, underrated by others.

 

Agreed. Wills was top guy, but like you said, slightly past their prime verisons of McVey and Langford got the better of Wills. I still think Wills was a top 40 ATG. He was a big man with a good punch.

 

Wills lower than Langford? Sure. Lower than McVey? Likely. I have read a bit on Jeanette, and his long suits were toughness, stamina, durability, and countering. Jeanette did not have big power or top draw skills. He won the hard way. I tend to think Wills at his best was better than Jeanette at his.

 

His worth as a fighter is the loose point; some have said big and slow, while others have stated that he was as fast as a cat.

The direction of the thread is quite accurate, but Wills was a fantastic who remains historically ailed from a lack of footage of him at his best.

 

Well stated. :good

 

I should be noted that for some of those losses when Langford etc were younger, he had little experience himself. It goes both ways. I certainly think his record is as good as Dempsey's if not better; the biggest difference is that he doesn't have a spectacular performance like KO'ing a 37 year old, horribly skilled, strong farmer boy on film.... plus his fights didn't say "world heavyweight championship" because he was ducked for a record holding amount of years.

 

:good

Dempsey had losses early in his career to worse fighters than Langford, and Mcvey as well.

 

Errrmmmmmmm

Yes but as others have said he also had to fight some of his best oponents before he himself had peaked.

And of course the same criticism could be made of some other great fighters.

 

Exactly. Wills rarely pops up in your average top15 list, but given his resume i think he's a lock for that. A guy like Patterson, as likeable as he is, does not even compare in my opinion, yet he's almost always in the top15. Having fight film, losing to Ali and not having been scuffed under the rug to cover up a national hero's shame can do a lot for one's legacy, that's for sure.