'Jack McAuliffe, retired undefeated Lightweight champion who has seen all the major heavyweights since John L. Sullivan, ranks young Joe Louis up with the very best of them. The dapper little ring master, who never was licked in 55 ring battles and held the Lightweight title from 1884 to 1893, said today that "Louis is a phantom out of the past" - "a fighter who brings back memories of Sullivan, Young Griffo and other ring immortals". McAuliffe's only single concern about Louis, who he thinks "might become the greatest Heavyweight in history", is the fact that Joe “must have some weakness?”' - United Press, January 1936.
For whatever it is worth, McAuliffe seems to have been fairly even handed between the greats of his era, and those who emerged after his retirement.
