Sailor Tom v Rocky

Sharkeys standing has gone up after his career.

If Corbett and Fitzsimmons are the Charles and Walcott of their era then we could call Sharkey the Rex Layne.

 

Agreed

 

How can you pick this dream fight? Where is all the film footage of "Sailor?" I know he has a rep, but who here alive has ever seen the sum ***** fight??

I'm bold... I'll pick Marciano........:hat

MR.BILL:nono

 

Perhaps, but Brennan was still there in round 12. Gibbons went the full 15.

Most of the old-time boxing writers picked Dempsey over Louis also.

I personally would have picked Dempsey over anyone into the seventies also. I was a Dempsey fan when young. I kept a copy of his biog in the barn and read it in the hayloft on rainy days. I had no interest in Marciano. My opinion only began to change when I got to watch Marciano in depth on film in the seventies and really began to ponder how one should evaluate fighters from different eras. For me, accomplishment trumps potential and opinion.

 

A reasonable point and Marciano was widely criticized for this in the boxing press and fined for it by the state commission.

 

Sonny Liston would destroy Sam Langford, HE Grant.

 

I wouldn't care to venture that anybody would destroy Sam Langford.

The guy just had too many teirs to his game.

 

Sorry you couldn't distinguish the tone of my response. I said it to get under Hegrants skin. I agree with you I don't think anyone would destroy Langford. Just like I do not think any 180lber would ever be able to "destroy" marciano.

 

I agree.

 

Probably for the same reason he failed to take out Ruhlin the first time around, lack of experience and development. We watch Jeffries-Ruhlin II and perhaps have a challenging time envisioning Gus having previously lasted 20 rounds with Jeff four years prior to that. (It bears reminding here that Ruhlin did knock out Sharkey both before and after Gus lost his title shot to Jeff. If Ruhlin could do it to Sailor Tom twice, then a healthy Jeffries with two handed power certainly ought to have been able to turn the trick.)

 

SQ, we all know your a kid but you don't have to constantly act it.

 

I concur.

 

Like I said, a kid.

 

Sharkey was very highly rated in his own day. When Fitz retired he was considered to have been one of , if not the greatest fighter that ever lived. A far cry from the faded Charles of the 1950's ... the post 1900 Corbett belongs in that crew thought ... Sharkey was far better than Rex Layne ...

 

Well, look at their eras.

Rating the best of the era it would be something like:

1. Marciano, 2. Walcott, 3. Charles, 4. Layne etc.

Rating Sharkeys, it would be something like
1. Jeffries, 2. Fitzsimmons, 3 Sharkey, 4 Corbett.

Both fighters were about the 3rd best of their era. You may see it a little different, perhaps putting say Ruhlin in their somewhere or Corbett ahead of Sharkey, but then again, you could also put the old Joe Louis ahead of Charles and Walcott also. I would say that this equates to roughly the same class of fighter.

Which fighters from his era do you say were better than Sharkey for him to not be in the same class as Charles and Walcott? No matter which way you look at it, these fighters were top 5 fighters of their era and neither was the top dog in their era. They have to be of a similar class.