Joe Louis vs. Vitali Klitschko

Hide was even more unpredictable than Sharkey and was marginal at world level. Sanders was a flash in the pan fighter who really only achieved one good win.

You might be able justify picking Peter over Sharkey (I certainly wouldnt) but making Sanders or Hide a favourite over him seems a stretch.

Byrd defeated Klitschko so he dosn't count.

 

Okay, we'll scratch Chris Byrd.

Moving forward, Herbie Hide was very athletic, possesed reasonable size when contrasted against heavyweights of the past, had KO'd 25 of his first 26 opponents, was a quick starter with fast hands and fast feet, and had Riddick Bowe out on his feet for period.. Frankly, I think he'd have a good chance at beating both Sharkey and Carnera.

Corrie Sanders' win over Wladimore Klitschko is head over heels above anything Carnera or Sharkey ever did, and he also made very short work of some upper tier journeyman and fringe contenders who as far as I'm concerned, would have been better opponents in the 30's considering their efforts in the 90's. Sanders was also a south paw fighter with very fast hands, a lot of power, and fairly large man ( albeit not as large as primo. )

Sam Peter was a less than impressive physical specimen, but when he was at least in halfway decent shape, he was a force. He took Wlad the distance, dropping him three times, made short work of Oleg Maskaev, and was pretty solid in the chin and power department.

 

Hide has a chance against most fighters, he is fast and powerful, but there's also a chance of this happening:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB3ws-3Kbzo[/ame]


He has also had his fair share of fights like this:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERw9uP5J-gM[/ame]


If one were to criticize Carnera for "fixed fights" then what in the world is this? The appropriately named Telecan didn't get hit with a single punch.

Sharkey to me is a bit underrated. I'm in the process of uploading a highlight video of him which may or may not change people's opinions on his ability.

 

Was Sharkey any worse or smaller than Eddie Chambers? Chambers outboxed Peter with relative ease. Peter wasn't in his best ever shape but I guess that goes down to inconsistency.

 

For the record, his first big win was a demolition of Bert Cooper about a year after Coop took Holyfield to the brink and almost won the HW Title. It was considered a statement win at the time.

He retired Bobby Czyz in similar fashion, after Czyz had given Holyfield some problems the fight before.

Similarly, he demolished an Al Cole in 1, who I believe had never been down before.

He was a guy who was as dangerous a hw as there was in his era... for the first couple rounds.

 

He was a guy that was inconsistant, poorly conditioned and lacked championship caliber drive and heart. He also was simply not that good. His loss to Rachman proved this. He was ready and simply got his ass whipped.

He was a big puncher with fast hands and at most a three round fighter. Put Marciano's heart in his body and you would have had something there.

 

Chambers came in at 205 lbs for his last fight. Sharkey somtimes came in over 200 lbs in shape.

 

At his best, Sharkey was a fantastic fighter, very modern looking, quick, very strong in appearance though not the hardest puncher. His biggest problem was between the ears.

 

Muldoon called him "the best heavyweight in the world from the neck down".

 

No question that Sanders was dangerous but immediately after making that statement against Bert Cooper, who was pretty much a journeyman at that point (coming off a recent loss to Mike Weaver), he ended up being KO'd in two by Nate Tubbs (Tony Tubbs's lesser brother).

The Czyz fight I believe was about two years after the Holyfield fight and Czyz had no fights in between. He was also a former middleweight so the odds were certainly stacked up against him.

Cole was a decent win but he was 36 at the time and lost most of his fights afterwards.

Sanders' resume is not much to talk about aside from his win over Wladimir but you can't take away that win from him, it proves he could be dangerous to any heavyweight. He also stunned Vitali in round one.

 

I have read a lot of articles from the day and there was no talk about any of his fights being fixed. Some thought he had built up his early record against tomato cans and washed up fighters but that's no different from what goes on today.

In fairness to Carnera, he took on a lot of good opponents after being "exposed" by Sharkey.