Where do you rank Jersey Joe Walcott ?

Certainly top 20. I've him around #17 infact. Fantastic fighter, one of the best counterpunchers of all-time, underestimated power, great footwork and movement and a very smart boxer. Could feint opponents into knots, lure them in and threw punches and hooks form all angles. Very skilled and unorthodox fighter.

 

Previously as high as 11th, but now he's settled down to 14th upon closer inspection. He's in the same tier as Holyfield, Johnson and Jeffries in my point of view.

 

Great fighter, great footwork and one of the best left hooks ever.

I have him around 15.

 

Walcott was a fun fighter to watch, but he was too inconstant to rate in the top 20. Losing 18 times makes him hard to rate highly. Walcott’s chin was average. His power greatly over rated by those who think he was an all time puncher. His size was average. Walcott is one of those fighters who became popular in defeat to Marciano and Louis. A younger Charles had his way with Walcott too.

In addition to having a losing record vs the best fighters he fought, Walcott lost to the likes of Layne, Maxim, Ray, Allen, Simon, Lazer, Fox, Brothers, Ketchell, and Ettore……he lost all of the above fights after his first 5 years in the ring, so the green card isn’t that easy to apply.

One must ask himself; would a top 20 ATG lose to all of the people in the second paragraph? NO WAY. And three of those losses ( Fox, Simon, and Ettore ) were via KO.

 

What were his best wins? He beat Ezzard Charles but apart from that (not counting the first Joe Louis fight which he should have won).

 

21 on my list.....very good boxer but hard to judge on those old b/w films..

 

I think Walcott did a great job of making the best out of very little. He had a virtually non-existant amateur career, and worked a full time blue collar job for most of his early pro days, until he hit wold class status. He took a lot of fights on short notice, and would often train at the gym late at night after busting his butt in a factory job all day. In his mid to late 30's, he looked about as physically fit as any well conditioned fighter could possibly look. Early on, he more or less bore the profile of a journeyman, but eventually rose above it, to become a solid challenger.

One criticism that I have to point out however, is that in some 5 attempts to capture the world title, he failed in at least 4 of them. In a more modern era, it is unlikely that a contender would recieve so many opportunities. Other than that, I have no problems with the guy. I'm not sure what I'd rate him. He certainly had some very good wins over some of the best fighters of his era, but he seems to be credited more heavily in his losing efforts to men like Marciano, Louis, and Charles ( who he also beat ).

 

Very nice post, mate. He seemed to develop and mostly kept on getting better with age too. :good

 

Ezzard Charles 2x, Joe Louis 1st fight, Lee Q Murray, Elmer Ray 2x, Harold Johnson, Jimmy Bivins were his very best wins. He also holds many other wins over ranked contenders.

 

I agree. In the mental and physical state he was in in the 1930s, he should have not even been granted a boxing liscene for many of those fights. He had a huge family to feed, and he would get up early in the morning to go work long gruelling hours.......no time to train for the gym, and no time to eat for himself so his kids could eat. Walcott claimed in a newspaper article "there was a period of time where for 10 straight years I went to bed hungry every night". Walcott took fights against top 10 ranked opponents on 24 hours notice with no training and barely any food in his stomach in the previous 48 hours, and only his natural god gifted ability would allow him to easily outbox the likes of abe simon for 6 rounds before running out of gas, or outbox a hall of famer like tiger jack fox for 6 rounds.


Walcott cleaned out the heavyweight division in the 1940s......beat all the top white and black fighters in a racial filled era.

 

Magoo,

What about Walcott getting robbed in the first Louis fight? Like holyfield-Lennox I? If the decision had been fair, then Walcott is champion in his FIRST world title attempt, and he would have been the FIRST heavyweight champ in history to lose and regain his title.

Not with me. I credit him for essentially cleaning out the heavyweight division in a 3 year span 1945-1947 beating 9 top 10 ranked contenders in that period including elmer ray lee q murray and jimmy bivins all very good fighters. Walcott firmly established himself # 1 contender.

 

Willie Reddish a black ranked heavyweight contender of the 1930s who Walcott beat claimed that Liston and Walcott were the 2 strongest heavyweights he has ever seen. Reddish was listons trainer.

 

Reddish was also Joe Louis's sparring partner, for the second Schmeling fight no less.