https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7CdfUXgovvPOWJ5QlFMZTdjYTA/edit?usp=sharing I hope the file opens up. I combined several pdf pages together, rather than link to original files. Robert Edgren wrote a series of articles in 1930 about the following mythical match-ups: Jack Dempsey vs Bob Fitzsimmons Tom Sharkey vs Jack Sharkey Jim Corbett vs Gene Tunney Terry McGovern vs Sammy Mandell Mickey Walker vs Kid McCoy Jack Dempsey vs James Jeffries Joe Gans vs Benny Leonard Stanley Ketchel vs Harry Greb Kid Lavigne vs Battling Nelson
Thanks for posting this, Senya... very interesting stuff! Can't say that I agree with Edgren in all of his picks, though: Corbett outpointing Tunney... hmm, don't think so! Ketchell swarming all over Greb and knocking him senseless... another questionable pick, I think. McCoy ko over Walker... not sure about that one either!
Senya, the file didn't open up for me...But though I can't agree with some of Edgren's choices, no ONE, but no ONE saw more great fighters than he... P.S. One more comment. It is hard for today's posters to imagine how great a middleweight Stanley Ketchel was regarded by those who saw him at his best, before drugs and dissipation did him in...One writer wrote years later after Ketchels tragic death, "once you have seen Ketchel there are no others ". Until recently Ketchel was regarded higher than mt alltime favorite Harry Greb. WHO REALLY KNOWS ?
Maybe so ! But Robert Edgren and Tad Dorgan were tremendously respected boxing writers of their era ....
Senya, the greatest piece of writing extolling a heavyweight, I ever read was in the "Book of Boxing" by WC Heinz and Ward..On page 228 Edgar Lee Masters a great American poet and Boxing devotee, who saw Every heavyweight Champion from Bob Fitzsimmons to past Joe Louis ringside, writes about Bob Fitzsimmons...He called Fitz the greatest heavyweight ever without doubt...I beseech ye to read this article...
Mathison became sporting editor of Detroit Free Press around 1885 (he had seen early Tommy Ryan and George Lavigne), then in 1891 moved to New York and wrote for multiple NY newspapers (boxing being his specialty) and during his late years for Ring magazine. He died in 1934. Bob Edgren started writing boxing in 1897 for San Francisco Examiner, then for NY Evening Journal and NY Evening World. He died in 1939. Tad Dorgan started writing sports later than both, although he may have seen great boxers in San Francisco as a kid (him joining the SF Bulletin art department in 1891, at 14 years of age), but he died in 1929.
Senya, I think that book you have is the same Book by Ward and Heinz, page 228 in an article written by Edgar Lee Masterson..Please check it ?
very interesting and illuminating from a guy who seen and probably knew most of them. jeffries and louis may have been the only two guys maybe to be favored over dempsey, imo, with jeffries more of a sure thing. there is alot to be learned from this writer who seen and knew them all up to this time. i learned alot here. thanl you for the great post
They are different books. There's no article by Masterson in the Fireside one. Page 228 contains the cartoons by Al Johns and the ending of the article "Two visits with Sam Langford" by Al Laney.
Senya, you are correct...I have the book in front of me right this moment. It IS called "The Book of Boxing ", by Total Sports Illustrated Classics, edited by W.C. Heinz and Nathan Ward Copyright 1999. It is the best book on boxing written by some of the greatest boxing writers of alltime...The article on page 228 written by Edgar Lee Masters about Ruby Bob Fitzsimmons is masterful... P.S. It is one of the few books of classic boxing I have that survived Hurricane Sandy one year ago, and I treasure it...