Mickey Walker vs John Ruiz

1. He's not just a "might be", he IS a whole lot better.
2. Where did we establish that? If you think a fight with De Kuh proves Walker can take on any guy in history with such height and weight, you're plain wrong.
3. Ruiz is one of the most effective infighters at heavyweight. And Walker will probably want to fight there too, but he's way too small for that and his defense is nowhere near as good as Toney's.

 

Stop asking stupid questions. If you don't understand the difference in class between John Ruiz and Arthur De Kuh or Bearcat Wright, you need to take off the rose-colored glasses of looking at any fighter of the past as some kidn of demi-gods, and start reading contemporary reports to exclude historical revisionism.
One single fight against a tomato can weighing 220 pounds doesn't prove you can take on proven titlists of same or even bigger size.
Flowers outfought Walker at infighting, although Tiger was a dirtier fighter than Ruiz, but that should give you an idea. Greb outfought Walker inside also.

 

1. The weakness of this era is overrated. The time when Walker fought those two was considered to be very weak as well, the transition years between the retirement of Dempsey/Tunney and the coming of Louis. De Kuh barely was able to sneak at 15 and 13 place of Ring's rating 6 and 5 years before he faced Walker. Wright never got rated there.

2. There are plenty of journeymen at the top now (same as in every other era, they are usually no more than 2-3 top guys, the rest are journeymen), but no tomato cans:
http://www.thering-online.com/ringpages/ratings2.html

Greb and Flowers weren't great technicians. But they often overcame more skillful guys with sheer agression, toughness (Tiger less so) and dirty tactics.

 

Annual rating for 1931
Max Schmeling, Champion
1. Jack Sharkey
2. Ernie Schaaf
3. Primo Carnera
4. King Levinsky
5. Mickey Walker
6. Tommy Loughran
7. Young Stribling
8. Stanley Poreda
9. Tuffy Griffiths
10. Max Baer

Annual rating for 1932:
Jack Sharkey, Champion
1. Max Schmeling
2. Max Baer
3. Stanley Poreda
4. Primo Carnera
5. Ernie Schaaf
6. Johnny Risko
7. King Levinsky
8. Walter Neusel
9. Larry Gains
10. Ed (Unknown) Winston

If you think this is a great pool of heavyweights, I don't know what standards you apply. Compare it to today's Ring Ratings I gave a link to.


Which top heavyweights of the time did Wright beat, exactly? Say plus/minus 3 years from Walker fight?

It was even easier to get rated for beating a postman back then, as many fighters also had another job to earn for living. Today you hardly see this at top echelon.

Nobody says they couldn't box. Just don't try to spin it to make them great technicians with great defense or things like that.

 

I have no more questions to you. If you think those poor top10 are better than the current one, my only advise would be for you to get some contemporary sources, Ring magazine if you can get those old issues, or just newspaper articles from the time, and see what the people from that time thought about that heavyweight division.

When did Bearcat Wright defeat George Godfrey?
First appearance of Tiger Jack Fox in Ring ratings: 1937 Light Heavyweight division #2

 

Fred Fulton win was 6 years before he fought Walker.

 

Give me a couple of sources that praised Greb's defense as great.

 

I'm too lazy to dig up the newspaper clipings, so I'll use the books instead

John Jarreyy "Gene Tunney - The Golden Guy Who Licked Jack Dempsey Twice":
pp. 59-60 - first fight
Tunney fought back with a body attack in round three, while Greb targeted the nose. The fourth was a furious session and they fought on some fifteen seconds after the bell before McPartland could tear them apart. Greb had shaded that round and Tunney fought desperately enough to make the fifth even, his hammer blows to the mid-section giving Greb something to think about. ... Yet Tunney summoned the strength from somewhere deep in his fighter's soul to launch a savage attack to Greb's body in the seventh round, left and right hooks thudding home to let his opponent know he was still there.

pp. 74-75, the 1st rematch
... the bell rang for round one.
Tunney was first to score, landing a solid left hook to the head and following quickly with the same hand to the body. Greb came in close and they exchanged lefts and rights to the body, ...
Round three and Greb rushed in, only to be met by a solid body attack that made him seek a clinch. ... They exchanged lefts and, as Greb missed a right to the jaw, Tunney put everything into a right to the heart that lifted Greb off his feet and made him fall into a clinch. Tunney was on top in this round and bounced right hands off Greb's jaw before another terrific right under the heart made Greb glad to hang on. The New Yorker finished the round with two searing punches into the body and Greb was happy to hear the bell.
Tunney was remembering Benny Leonard's advice in the gym and was concentrating his attacks on the body as the Pittsburgh Windmill sailed in with gloves flying. In the fourth round, Tunney varied his attack and a right to Greb's flat nose brought blood. The champ fired back with a wicked left to the body but had to take a solid left and right to the jaw, then lefts and rights to the body forced a clinch. Tunney tore himself free and drove Greb before him to the ropes with a two-fisted barrage of leather that ended only with the bell. In the fifth round a smashing right to the face brought blood gashing from Greb's mouth ...


I also looked in "A man must fight" (1944 Services Edition), and I don't see Tunney mentioning he couldn't hit Greb where he writes about these fights.