Wills was on a long unbeaten streak, and was the obvious number 1 contender for about 8 years by that point. However, he was also kinda old and hadn't really beaten anyone notable in the years leading up to the fight. Is this an ATG win for Sharkey?
It's not the win it would have been 5-10 years earlier, but it still counts. Wills had been good enough just the previous year to beat Charley Weinert (who was, coincidentally, coming off a win against Sharkey).
Wills was 37 in an era when that was really old for a fighter & got stopped by Uzcudun in his next fight inside 4 rounds. A solid win over a great, way past prime, but still relevant contender in the context of the time. Certainly nowhere near an ATG win.
Harry Wills had won 13 fights in a row, in the 4 plus years previous to this, including wins over Sam Langford and Luis Firpo. The win certainly does not hurt Jack Sharkey's legacy. It appears that Jack totally dominated the 38 year old Harry Wills before Harry fouled out.
I think it is. Granted, Wills was getting along in years and was past his best, but he was still a top contender - feared and avoided. Sharkey's victory was not as good as it would have been had it happened some 5 years earlier, but given that Sharkey had only been in the pro ranks for two years it was about as good as it could have been. He had been willing to step into the ring with Wills and George Godfrey and came out with back-to-back victories, no small feat by any means.
He got Wills at teh prefect time, in terms of a risk/reward proposition. Still an exceptional win, over a very dominant top contender. There was nothing to stop Dempsey or Tunney picking Wills off when he was ripe to be taken.
Typical building block win for a rising young heavyweight. It meant a lot to Sharkey's advancement at the time, but is not that much value in appraising his all-time ranking. His wins over Maloney, Godfrey, Loughran, Stribling, Scott, and Carnera were more important in evaluating his capabilities.
A prime Sharkey bringing his A game was a terrific cruiserweight ... it was a good win against an old fighter that may have still had some game but was likely most vulnerable to speed which a young Sharkey had ... wish I could have seen more on his fight against Godfrey as much of what I read seems to say it was a very close (at least) fight ...
