What are people's thoughts? I know very little about this period. So, I tried to put together a list based off The Ring rankings, but they only really covered half the decade. You also had great fighters of the time who were limited by the color bar. So I tried to also look at the records of those who were considered top guys pre-1924. Finally, I ranked based on consistency of results and ranking across the decade, not 'who wins H2H': Jack Dempsey Harry Wills Gene Tunney Jack Sharkey Tommy Gibbons Billy Miske George Godfrey Jack Renault Paolino Uzcudun Young Stribling Also, what are people's thoughts on the possible placement of Harry Greb? He had a number of wins over +175lbs opponents in the early 1920s, with 2 wins over Jack Renault in 1921. He ran into a wall against +175 Gene Tunney, but so did many others. It would be a big help to hear people's thoughts. So, what do you have?
I think the top 3 is Dempsey, Sharkey and Tunney. Dempsey and Tunney's achievements are paper thin. Sharkey has the best win ledger that decade in my opinion, but also has several losses. Wills is probably next, though his best wins were in the previous decade, he didn't do a lot in the 20s and was past his best. Next I think would be Harry Greb. Honestly I think it's one of the worst decades for heavyweights. I think the 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, 1930s and 1940s were all much better.
Theses aren't in too exact and order but listing some of the top names from the other decades shows how much more depth they had, I've probably overlooked some guys. 1890s: James J Jeffries, Bob Fitzsimmons, James J Corbett, Peter Jackson, Tom Sharkey, Peter Maher, Kid McCoy, Joe Goddard, Joe Choynski 1900s: Jack Johnson, James J Jeffries, Bob Fitzsimmons, Gus Ruhlin, Sam McVea, Tommy Burns, Jack Root, Marvin Hart, Tom Sharkey, 1910s: Harry Wills, Sam Langford, Jack Dempsey, Jack Johnson, Sam McVea, Joe Jeannette, Jess Willard, Gunboat Smith, Jack Dillon, Fred Fulton 1930s: Joe Louis, Max Schmeling, Jack Sharkey, Max Baer, Tommy Loughran, Primo Carnera, Young Stribling, Larry Gains 1940s: Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott, Ezzard Charles, Elmer Ray, Billy Conn, Jimmy Bivins, Lou Nova
Thanks. Some nice insights there. I'm trying to get an idea of the period, and I'm getting the impression Wills was pretty much avoided in his prime years. Also, I appreciate the run down of the surrounding periods. Cheers
