Ring Magazine rated him the 5th greatest welterweight ever and obviously he got lots of good work done at lighter weights as well, but I never, never hear him mentioned on here relative to guys like Gans, Leonard, Gavilan, Ross, or Langford even though he had a comparable resume. Among many others the guy beat Ross, Canzoneri, Singer, Mandell (two out of three), Young Corbet III (one of the most explosive knockouts in championship history), Villa, Ruby Goldstein, etc etc. Thoughts?
Don´t think so. People generally rank him pretty high. Like Top20 high. Which is fair I think. I rank him the lowest out of the trinity but all three are Top20 for me.
yes, he's underrated (in terms of how often he's mentioned, not when he is mentioned - so maybe underappreciated?) his top two wins are comparable with anyone's... pretty much splitting a series with ross is a testament to his skills, and as you say, he administered some emphatic knockouts too. a 'terror' in the ring, if ever there were one. and as far as i'm concerned, he had the greatest celebration of all time.
I don't think he's overrated so much as overlooked. He was one of boxing's most beloved champions during his heyday, then went on to enjoy a long happy life with the longest retirement of any titleholder in the sport's history. He didn't hang around too long, went out a winner with huge back to back wins over Canzi and Ambers, and didn't wind up on the skids. Perhaps because he was around so recently, there wasn't the same urgency to memorialize him.
Same as. I have Ross at either 10 or 11 most days, Canzoneri 11 or 12 most days, and McLarnin between 15-19. Also, does anyone think that McLarnin is a good stylistic matchup for Pac?
I was thinking about making that matchup. I think Pac would pose quite a few problems for Jimmy with his speed, angles, workrate, southpaw stance. But on the other hand, it´s not too hard to find Pac and while ha has a good beard I think McLarnin can dent his chin. Would be a very interesting fight I think.
