Jersey Joe Walcott vs Max Schmelling

I'm gonna be honest, I definitely knew you meant Marciano lol.

 

Tough fight. Both of these guys were crafty trap setters with decent power. I’m guessing we’re looking at the Schmeling who beat Louis vs the Walcott who beat Charles ? Regardless it’s a hard pick. I’m leaning towards Walcott but wouldn’t be surprised if it went the other way.

 

Fair enough, besides one thing - he definitely wasn't at his best when he lost to Loughran and Levinsky (and arguably Carnera). I mean, he basically never won anything admirable after Carnera fight and he was clearly past his best (which is visible when you compare that version to the one from late 1920s).

 

The thing is though he was so close to going 3-0 in 1933 I can't really make a case for him being past it.

He was beating Carnera until that knockout.

The fights with Levinsky and Loughran were really close and with another set of judges he could have edged them.

The version in the 20s made his name off beating LHW guys like Delaney, Loughran and Stribling.

Let's be honest he's achieved something very very few manage which is to climb atop the HW rankings, but he very easily could have lost that rematch with Schmelling.

I think the only champs who came after him, I would favour him over are Braddock, L Spinks, Briggs and Rahman.

 

I'd add Ingo and Moorer to that list. Maybe Spinks as well.

 

I think Ingo catches him with a knockout shot early on. Detonates that hammer on him.

With Moorer I think he out works Sharkey over the distance.

Spinks I'm unsure about, I really think Spinks is good enough to out jab him and do a job from range, but then Sharkey has such a good record against great LHW fighters so he has that on his side.

 

The problem is that outside of Carnera fight, nobody did that to him. Sharkey has very good record against punchers and he's tough to land on cleanly. I don't think Ingo would find his money punch on Sharkey's chin given Jack's amazing head movement.

 

Coming back to the thread - giving Max success against silky fighters like Stribling and Sharkey I am staying with him in this matchup. lufcrazy made some good points but I still view Walcott a bit overrated here.

 

I think peak Sharkey beats Carnera, Braddock, Walcott, Ingo, Spinks, Briggs, Rahman, Moorer, Old Foreman and 50/50 v Schmeling, Patterson and Charles. He made his name, not defeating Light Heavies but rather aagainst Wills, Godfrey and Carnera, you won't find many early champions beating that quality of big men. But we better not derail this thread, it's a good match up and I think Max's stalking style and overhand right make him the favourite with me but Walcott winning is an equally reasonable pick as he could befuddle the methodical German.