I don't get what losing to a 27 year old Schmelling really proves here .. other than Mickey had balls of steel.. Schmelling had 14lbs & 6 inches of height on him and was a much fresher fighter too.. that Walker was in there trading shots & more often than not holding his own with HWs like Sharkey, Schmelling, Levinsky, Wright, Risko etc is something to be commended & historically significant. In fact he wasn't just beating them, he was hurting them too.. he put Risko & Wright over.. Can't think of many former WW/MWs who'd get away with that.
I would respectfully have to disagree. Risko was the best heavyweight of that era that never held the title, and many expected him to be the champion after Tunney retired.
And after Tunney retired he had 14 losses before facing Walker. Dude was 63-39 when Walker beat him. Not that it was a bad win. But it wasn't some earthshattering victory that got Walker rated. You're over-egging the pudding, as the Limeys say.
Risko was a Ring top 10 ranked HW when Walker beat him twice .. he would go on to beat Baer, Levinsky, Loughran, Galento etc.. hed also defeated Uzcudun, Sharkey & 'coloured' HW champion George Godfrey .. Risko was a unit too.. 5'10 195lbs & ripped.
I am aware of this. If you take a closer look at the early part of his record, you will see that he was regularly taking fights a week apart. This is not conducive to a pretty win loss ratio.
He was clearly a very tough guy with underrated skill but he's a bit, for me, tough to rate as he was jumping up and down in weight so much and as legend (maybe) has it was a huge drinker ... it appears he may have been his best trained and focused for his bout w Greb which really also shows how terrific even a fading Greb was ...