He might have fought Johnson, Willard, Dempsey and Wills. Gone at age 21 ( 1913 ), he's a what could have been case. I'm still looking for film on McCarty. Was there any?
He might have been the greatest ever. He might equally have lost to Sam McVea, crawled into a whisky bottle, then faded into Bolivian!
He looked to be on a roll and then came his untimely death, mostly due to a rodeo injury he suffered. He did lose a few decisions on the way up, so presumably, his defense wasn't the best, but at the same time, he was a big guy who can hit and looked to have a solid chin.
He was so young when he died. I think the big thing is to what extent he matured young, versus being talented, and not showing it yet.
The originator of this thread obviously knows nothing about McCarty,if he did he would have known that McCarty fought Willard on August 19th 1912! and was credited with a NWS dec win.Billy McCarney his manager,[ he had previously managed Willard,] was convinced a fall from a horse on the ranch in Calgary which was his training camp for Pelkey had caused the unsuspected injury, there was no "rodeo injury." Others felt that the origins of the problem could be traced back to his fight with Frank Moran a month earlier in which he absorbed several of Moran's full blooded"Mary Ann" right hands to the head before toughing it out for a ten rounds no decision..
