Sullivan - Becomes heavyweight champ when he beats Ryan. Ducks black fighters. Stripped. [Interregnum. Corbett and Jackson try to establish a new lineage, but fail.] Johnson - Establishes a new lineage when he beats Burns. Won't fight McVey, Jeanette, Langford. Stripped. [Interregnum.] Joe Louis - Beats Schmeling (whom Braddock hadn't given a shot), and also everybody else. Ezzard Charles Jersey Joe Walcott Rocky Marciano - May be stripped at the end of his reign for not fighting Valdes. Or maybe not. Floyd Patterson - Beats Moore. Eventually stripped for reasons too well known to dwell upon. [Interregnum] Sonny Liston - Beats Patterson for the vacant title Muhammad Ali [Interregnum.] Joe Frazier - Beats Ali and everybody else to win the title. Possibly stripped for the Stander defense. Foreman Ali [Interregnum] Holmes - Beats Norton. Stripped at some point. [Interregnum] Tyson Douglas Holyfield Bowe - Stripped for Lennox incident. Though the loss to Holyfield might have come first; can't recall. [Interregnum] Lewis - Can't be bothered to figure out when this happened, but it (probably?) did. Stripped for failing to fight Byrd and Ruiz, as crazy as that sounds. Or maybe earlier. Dunno how Rahman fits in. [Interregnum] Wlad - If he fought the #2 guy at some point when his brother was retired, he would've held the title for at least a short time. I think he did at one point. Was Vitali still around at the Povetkin fight? Fury - If Wlad still held the title, Fury got it. Stripped immediately for failing to fight the rematch. [Interregnum.] ...Might have missed somebody, or goofed the timeline. But there you go.
The argument could run thus: Jim Corbett held Peter Jackson (who was the outstanding contender) to a draw, then he took the title from poor old John L Sullivan, who had unified every single title claim. That sounds pretty conclusive to me.
Sharkey vs. Walcott is actually a pretty intriguing fight. Here's someone stylistically similar to Rocky, with ATG tier chin and durability. Not to mention Sharkey had power and stamina. It's a close fight.
Just stopping by to comment that I like the artfulness of this particular verbal can-opener. Not taking a stance on the substance; you and mcvey both seem to have that well in hand. Good luck, gentlemen.
Good ,interesting work , as I would expect from you, one caveat Johnson signed to defend against Jeannette twice and signed to defend against both Langford and McVey.The fact that these fights fell through was not Johnson's fault.
How can a draw/ no contest ever be seen as a conclusive result? Corbett never proved himself the master of Jackson and actively avoided defending his title against him.
I like it too.Janitor and I regularly cross swords and since he is invariably polite I must endeavour to respond in kind. My take on this match is Walcott should be favourite, but I certainly do not rule out the possibility of a Jeffries win .
I believe I have answered your invitation,but should you require further information please don't hesitate to ask, I am always happy to explain any and all of my opinions.
Sharkey's chin may be overestimated, he was dropped twice by163lbs Kid McCoy . Do you see Marciano being floored by McCoy? Durability ? Sharkey was ko'd by a bodyshot from a super middle ,a very hard hitting man its true, but still a super middleweight,and Fitz repeated the feat later. Just facts to ponder imo. I do believe Sharkey was as impervious to pain as any fighter that ever lived and as courageous as any as well. Sharkey was also ko'd by Ruhlin a good puncher but not one classed as a terrific banger. Sharkey was also ko'd early in his career,I dont have the circumstances for that so cant comment
In that case, we'd change "won't fight" to "doesn't fight," but still have to strip Mr. Johnson. We make no allowances for boxing politics.
