Mini tourney of the most well-known quartet of heavyweights to be dubbed "Great White Hope" by press

Early 20th Century Bracket: Jeffries vs. Willard

Later 20th Century Bracket: Quarry vs. Cooney

Finals: Early vs. Later

 

So the permutations that are possible in the finals are:

Jeffries vs. Quarry
Jeffries vs. Cooney
Willard vs. Cooney
Willard vs. Quarry

None of the four are uninteresting to ponder.

 

Oh, it's positively despicable that such a term ever even existed...but it is a part of the sport's history, along with the color line. This quartet besides having this factoid in common just struck me as making for a very interesting bracketology exercise.

 

I'm mildly surprised that nobody has gone for the largest* dog in the hunt. Yes, he's the least skillful boxer of the bunch and yes that's a massive understatement.

Even so, it feels like Willard and to a greater extent Carnera have undergone a drastic rehabilitation of reputation on Classic over my last couples of decades on here. The official line on both used to be they were massive but useless lumps (Valuev also fell afoul of this characterization, I think largely as result of dissatisfaction with the Holyfield decision because for all his slowness he did possess a tidy jab if nothing else). I've seen the court of collective opinion gradually defrost on all three giants formerly written off as clumsy oafs, and Willard has even been tipped or at least given a more favorable chance by some posters in hypothetical fantasy match-ups with other champs.

A majority of historians do typically pick Jeffries h2h over the man that beat the man that beat him - but that's no longer the nigh unanimity it used to be. I certainly wouldn't punt the house on the Pottawatomie Giant getting past the Boilermaker and then also surviving 12 or 15 or however many rounds worth of the best shots of either the Bellflower Bomber or the Gentleman. I could imagine some Classic denizens mounting a credible longshot defense for him, though.

*I say largest in overall terms. He would have stood eye to eye with Cooney, but typically outweighed him by roughly a stone and was a tad longer in wingspan.

Comparative array:

Willard 6'6", reach 83″
Jeffries 6'2" (careful Googling, the comedian of the same name is 5'1" ), reach 76½″
Quarry 6' flat, reach 72"
Cooney 6'6", reach 81"