The great might have been of Heavyweight boxing(along with Ike) but was he really that good? His record is patchy while admittedly he was young and apparently improving.
I have never been that impressed with his record, but i know there are few others on here, who hold him in much higher regard.
The wins over Palzar and Morris seemed big at the time but with hind-sight they didn't amount to much. At different times Smith, Moran, Kaufman, Coffey, Palzar, Pelkey and others rose to the top only to disappear again.
OK, Jeff Clarke handed him a whupping as did Wuest and he was edged out by Willard. He took his time to beat Flynn and Palzar and maybe even lost to Grim...hardly the stuff of legend ?
I think that he was as good as any of the white hopes when he died, and I also think that he would have got somewhat better. It is hard to be more precise than that.
My take would be that he barely turned 21 when he died. And he did not have an extensive boxing background, yet most reports describe him in glowing terms. How many champions would have accomplished as much if they had died at the same age, 21 and a couple of months. Louis--yes Tyson--yes Foreman--not as a pro Ali--I would have my doubts. The fights with Jones and Cooper were still ahead. Those two bouts probably actually tarnished him as a contender. Dempsey--not at all Baer--Actually a great young prospect, but certainly not as successful as McCarty. Lewis, Holmes, Marciano--no way. Wlad Klitschko--Not at that age as a pro. Jeffries--He was older before he really started to move. *McCarty was obviously a great young prospect, perhaps behind only Louis and Tyson, although some might argue Ali is in that class. It is important that he did not have an amateur background. **I would be cautious about placing too much emphasis on Newspaper Decisions. Who knows if the reporters were honest? If judges can be bought to win bets, why not reporters? Do we know if the reporters for these obscure papers were competent boxing judges? Also, knowing that there would be no official decision, did the boxers really go all out in quite the same way as they did when they knew someone would win or lose?
