Why what my man? nice screen name, I am a fan of thad. he brutalized ernie terell in that 68 encounter.
Jersey Joe Walcott can't be ranked as a top 10 all time great heavyweight. In some 6 attemps to win the heavyweight title, he failed in at least 5 of them. In a more modern era, Walcott would likely not have recieved so many chances. What's more, Jersey lost 18 fights in his career, and 6 of those came via stoppage or knockout. Lastly, he held the title for a rather short duration, and only had a single title defense. Walcott was a good fighter, who likely deserves to be somewhere between 25-30, but top 10 is too generous in my opinion.
anyone can nitpick anyone records like ur doing magoo. u have to look at the whole picture. walcott cleaned out the division pre title and arguebably has one of the best resumes of any heavyweight champ of all time. he also matches up extremely well against the rest of the field head to head. a slick cutie with a big punch, not many of those. as of failing 5 out of 6 attempts, u fail to mention he got horribly robbed in one of them and really should have won the title over louis in his first attempt. he also went on to even the series with charles 2-2.
Records are not the only thing that I'm looking at here, but they are certainly one thing to take into account. As for the robbery against Louis, we have to look at the fact that the bomber was well past his prime, and managed to lick Walcott in the rematch as well. Losing to Charles twice consecutively would not normally amount to a third fight in a stronger era. There are plenty of fighters who are more deserving of a top 10 spot than Walcott. I'm not saying that Walcott wasn't great. In my opinion, top 25 is still all time great status. To be top 10, you really have to earn a spot. I'm not sure that Walcott did.
Walcott at the top of his game, is one of the greatest fighters ever. His record is not as good as it could be because for many fights he did not properly prepare. He did not have time, was under nourished from not having enough food, etc. In the rematch with Joe, he got cocky and slipped up and Louis put him away. A trilogy would have been interesting. A serious, properly prepared Walcott is a nightmare for many fighters.
Fair enough, but you're making concessions for the fact that Walcott was ill prepared for many of his earlier bouts, but not acknowledging that Louis was past his prime. You make good points, but you have to apply them both ways. We also can't give Walcott a high rating based on what he might have done, had his career been conducted differently. What happened happened......The dice fell where it fell......I could just as easily say that if Mike Tyson had stayed out of trouble and kept his head on his shoulders that he might have been better. Or if Muhammad Ali hadn't lost 4 years of his career due to supension that he might not have lost to Frazier. The list goes on and on. That said, Walcott was definately a great fighter, but I'm still not convinced that he was top 10.
Understandable. His rematch with Louis, he lost fair and square. But I find it interesting to wonder how he could have been had he prepared well for many of his fights. Unfortunately we'll never know.
I speculate that he might have been very successful had he been better prepared. If he had the luxury of training full time, rather than holding a job on the side, then it might have done his career wonders. Also, his best moments didn't come to pass until he was 34+. A 20 something year old Walcott, with better career conditions, surely might have been Louis's toughest test.
Agreed. He'd have less experience and possibly less skills, but the trade off would arguably be enough for him to be a huge challenge for Louis.
I like Walcott a lot, I think if I'd been alive at that time he would've been someone I rooted for as an underdog and wanting him to finally "win the big one"...kind of like Frank Bruno in the 80s and 90s. I really couldn't put him in my own Top Ten, though. Twenty, sure.
Aside from a torrid, unlucky journey into title contention, 'Jersey' Joe often hindered his future with his fight plan, which could haphazardly change from round to round. He fought at his best against Charles, third fight when he came forward to prompt a counter, and then counter Charles counter attempt. Jack Blackburn taught Walcott before he got a hold of Louis, and ironically, he fought better when he fought more aggressively like the 'Brown Bomber'.
