Basing this on fact, who fought a better level of opposition and proved themselves as a professional M of Q fighter ?
Sullivan holds a big edge in depth and dominance, and he must be considered the greater Queensbury fighter based on this. However you can make a strong case that the best that Goddard fought, were better than the best that Sullivan fought. It's like comparing Larry Holmes to James Douglas.
There are a number of points in boxing history, where you have a paradigm shift in the level of information that gets archived. One of those took place at the tail end of Sullivan's career. The average student of boxing history, knows a lot about men like Jackson, Slavin, Goddard and Corbett, but not very much about the men who were the key players during Sullivan's prime. This has distorted a lot of very knowledgeable boxing fan's opinions of Sullivan.
