Some may well be overrating him because you have to essentially rank him off of an unknown- how good his average competition was. What one assumes in that directly relates how they'll rate him, but so little is known that I don't think it can be proven that he's underrated or overrated because breaking his career down into a nifty little list works like it does with most fighters. And that's what makes him extremely hard to rate for me. He's a perfect definition of P4P, but we don't know how bad-or good- his competition is. We do know he has good wins at the top level, so there's at least a "floor" in place. My case for him not being overrated is that he's ranked where he is despite people knowing that they have to guess his average level of competition. It seems like recently (probably due to boxrec and the like) it's more commonplace to assume he fought nothing but bums, buggy drivers, and rookies because the documentation's not there. However, I'm inclined to believe the opposite- that even if his competition wasn't famous, that the odds are there were alot more experienced fighters with alot of fights among his resume (which is probably understated as it is). So, any surprise that emerges about his career and opposition would probably be to the upside in my book.
There is a case for Jimmy Wilde being the 'All Time Number 1 P4P Boxer'. Wilde actually defines P4P and here is why ? - Jimmy Wilde was always giving weight away, he only weighed about 90 lbs, the lightest weighclass in his day was 'Flyweight' - 112lbs, today there are weight classes at 'Strawweight' 105 lbs and 'Light Flyweight' 108 lbs. If they could have made weightclasses small enough for the 'Mighty Atom' he would have won World titles at 90 lbs {does not exsist}, 95 lbs {does not exsist}, 100 lbs {does not exsist}, 105 lbs {now a weight class}, 108 lbs {now a weight class}, 112 lbs {Was World Flyweight Champion} 115 lbs {now a weightclass} also Jimmy Wilde had a couple of wins over Joe Lynch who went on to become World Bantemweight Champion 118 lbs, he gave Lynch a 14 lb weight advantage. Jimmy Wilde often weighed in for fights in his street clothes, including shoes and his pockets allegedly 'full of rocks' { I have read that in America at the time you was required to be within 10 lbs of your opponents weight, I dont know if that was true, if it was it could explain Jimmy wearing his street clothes to weigh in} Jimmy Wilde, is definitely the best flyweight of all time - The Internatinal Boxing research organisation say so. Nat Fleischer says so Charlie 'Broadway' Rose says so {Infact I have never ever seen an ATG flyweight list, that does not show 'The Mighty Atom' as number 1}. Jimmy Wilde was unbeaten in his first 101 fights, this was one of the longest unbeaten runs ever. Jimmy Wilde is widely regarded as one of the most devistating punchers ever, {no matter what weight division} thats why he was called the 'Ghost with a Hammer in his Hand'. Infact Jimmy Wilde is often ranked as the 'Greatest Ever Puncher'. In 2003, Ring magazine listed him as their #3 all time best ever puncher. Jimmy Wildes KO record was an increditable 65.13 % {considering he was fighting in the main, bigger, larger men} Gene Tunney said that Jimmy Wilde was the ''Greatest Fighter I Ever Saw'' The IBRO (International Boxing Research Organization) published a listing of the greatest boxers of all time in the IBRO Journal # 91 Sept, 27 2006. Nearly a third of voters had Jimmy Wilde in their top 10 All Time Great P4P. Two thirds of voters had him in their top 20. Wilde fought all the best boxers in his day, although Wilde was from Wales he became an International superstar {10 fights in the USA and 2 in Canada, one of the Canadian fights attracted a crowd of 11,000 people which was the largest ever attendance for a bout in that country} , Wilde retired after losing to Pete Herman in round 17, Wilde was giving Herman a 10lb weight advantage, after 30 months {2 and half years} out of the ring Wilde was tempted out of the retirement to fight the new young sensation 'Pancho Villa' in New York, Wilde was given a massive sum for 1923, of £13,000 pounds sterling, Wilde was 31 years old and Pancho Villa was 22 years old, it was one fight to many for Jimmy Wilde, Villa became the Phillipines first World boxing champion and a national hero overnight. Jimmy Wilde's record was 137 Wins {99 by KO}, 2 Draws and 5 defeats. He became President of the National Union of Boxers and wrote an autobiography, Fighting Was My Business. In any true p4p list, I can't see how Jimmy Wilde could possibly be left out of anybodies top 10 ? as he defines p4p greatness, in the true sense of p4p he could even be considered for the number 1 spot ?
Best of all time at his weight, you could argue that. Best of all time? Nope. The fighters at the extreme ends of the scales have a hard time in the pound for pound sense. At heavyweight, you are confined to your own division. At flyweight, its hard to move up past bantam. I consider most dominant at their own weight class as part of the critera for pound for pound status. And Wilde was the best in his day at 112.