I've never seen any footage of McLarnin and I'm very curious if anyone knows what he was like style-wise and ability-wise. Does he rate among the greats at welterweight or of all time? His roll call of victims includes the likes of Benny Leonard,Tony Canzoneri,Barney Ross,Sammy Mandell,Lou Ambers,Pancho Villa,Fidel La Barba,Sid Terris,Billy Petreolle,Al Singer,Young Corbett 3,Young Jack Thompson and Joe Glick just to name a few. He was only stopped the once which is amazing considering his calibre of opposition,and he retired on top handing Canzoneri and Ambers beatings. I've never really seen him mentioned when the best welterweights are discussed,perhaps because his reign as champion was short but his resume stacks up with anybodies and I doubt if anyone has beaten more ATG fighters than McLarnin did. Is he vastly underrated? Your thoughts?
I have him in my Tier4 at Welterweight equalling a ranking between 8 and 10 alongside Tommy Ryan and Jack Britton. I think he deserves this high ranking based on resume and accomplishments. Most fighters who are ranked that high or higher don´t have that kind of resume, SRL for example has not beat as many good to great fighters as McLarnin but is constantly a pick for the top3-5 at WW. Yes, he is underrated. Imo the 30s were a very good era at WW but the fighters don´t get enough credit for it.
