Tracy Callis' ATG P4P Top Ten ?

No Duran or Ezzard Charles is pretty much inexcusable.

 

Pretty much as weird as Nat Fleischer's old lists!

 

At first glance it's really not good .............. but at least 5 of those would probably make my top 10 too, so it can't be that bad either.

 

No Ezzard makes me sad

 

Like an old time list, old timers didn`t know much about boxing back then and the sport has evolved since the day of all of these fighters, even the great Sugar Ray had huge flaws that a modern elite trainer could iron out, a lot of the guys on this list had the potential to be top 10 all-time greats but they didn`t have the trainers to teach them modern fighting methods, I feel P4P Loma is more skilled than any of these guys on this list.

 

I would say that Fitzsimmons, Robinson, Langford, Armstrong, and Greb are good picks.

I am not necessarily approving the order.

I would say that the Nonpareil is an unusual, but perhaps arguable pick.

Mitchell, Ketchel, Dempsey and O'Brien are all somewhere between eccentric and awful picks.

Overall better than most of his lists!

 

I think Mitchell and Ketchel are justifiable.

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Ketchell did dominate a very strong middleweight era, and had significant success north of that weight, but if you included him on that basis then you would open it up to a lot of other people IMO.

You would then have to look at questions like why not Tommy Ryan or Barbados Joe Walcott.

Mitchell was a junior middleweight sized fighter, who was a very strong heavyweight contender, but top ten seems a bit of a stretch.

Again I think that his inclusion throws the field very wide.

 

I would like to see his reasoning for the Nonpareil.

Not denigrating it. Just curious. I'll take all the info on him I can get.

 

This list does become an awful lot better if it was say pre 1950. Still some strange picks though.

 

One serious question.

Is there any possible justification for ranking Philadelphia Jack O Brien ahead of Tommy Burns. Tommy was no bigger and completely dominated O Brien. Can Janitor or anyone make any type of argument there because it does not seem all that uncommon from those who saw both.

 

http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/tc-pfp.htm
http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/Article-Nonpareil.htm

 

Thanks @BitPlayerVesti. I know there is a new biography on Nonpareil, but it is much too expensive for purchase at this moment.

 

I'll do a thread on him at some point.