Tom Sharkey: how close is he to Corbett and Fitz in greatness?

Sharkeys reputation has risen over time for whatever that is worth.

Much of the contemporary media thought that Gus Ruhlin was a much better fighter than Tom Sharkey, though contemporary fighters gave him rave reviews in later years.

The DQ win against Corbett should be regarded as a straight up win because Corbetts men entered the ring when Corbett was on the verge of being knocked out.

Reading between the lines Fitzsimmons iced him twice in real terms.

His record against Choynski should probably be 1-1-1 because in one of the fights that he won Choynski needed to get a knockout to win and failed to get it but other wise had the better of the fight.

He knoced out Gus Ruhlin in the first round which is faster than either Jeffries or Fitzsimmons managed to do it but Ruhlin later beat him twice when he was declining badly.

 

I don't know if his resume is as good as either of those men, but I gree that they were close. I started a thread on Sharkey about 3-4 months ago.

Ah yes, here it is http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146973&highlight=good+sharkey

 

I think he falls just short of their level,two bad stoppages to FITZ,hurt him imo,his most celebrated fights were both losses,albeit to a much bigger man.

 

Agreed.

 

Fitz was a level above, the more I hear about that guy the more impressed I am. Sharkey is definately a great fighter from that era though who deserves to be acknowledged.

 

that's a good explanation why he's clearly both h2h and p4p better than corbett , and p4p better than jeffries. fitzsimmons is better than sharkey h2h.

 

i also forgot to mention that corbett is very overrated , and the word overrated already includes a very in its meaning.

 

He was knocked out twice by Fitzsimmons.

I'd rate him equal or above Corbett in the time frame we are discussing though, but qualifying that by saying Corbett may well have been some degree past his best when he was mixing it with the other three. (Corbett as a top level fighter and champion pre-dates Sharkey and Jeffries by a few years, and Fitzsimmons by a little bit too.)