Max Schmeling, Where Does He Rank?

[Jaclem]

sorry alp.....i swear i read your post a couple of times and didn't find charles in that second list.

but....i'm n ot going to take the time now to put charles as equal to some in the first list and better than some others.

let the suspense start to simmer...

[CliSwe]

Schmeling sits pretty high in my personal rankings - both as a boxer and as a man. But politics meant he never had the chance to achieve his true potential. Nobody would've beaten Louis that night - he was just unstoppable. I reckon that, overall, Schmeling was a better fighter than some men who beat him (notably Max Baer, one of the laziest fighters to ever win the heavyweight title). World War Two saw him as a war hero, with the Luftwaffe's paratroopers capturing Crete from the British; and he was a successful businessman after the war. I would've liked to see him fight Tommy Farr, but it never happened; Still not sure who would've won.

Cheers,
Cliff

[Jaclem]

......i'd rate charles in any group that has marciano, dempsey and tunney.....now let the fireworks begin...

[HomicideHenry]

......i'd rate charles in any group that has marciano, dempsey and tunney.....now let the fireworks begin...

I would say you are not far off the mark, Charles was a very underated heavyweight and still is to this day. On the P4P lists, he is right up there. I hold him to a higher regard than Tunney and Moore.

[Ambling Alp]

......i'd rate charles in any group that has marciano, dempsey and tunney.....now let the fireworks begin...

Ok let the fireowrks begin. :)

First of all -Marciano. Easy comparsion given that they fought in the same era and fought each other twice. Marciano won the head to head 2-0. Marciano was 2-0 vs Walcott while Charles was just 2-2. Marciano never lost whiles Charles had losses to people like Nino Valdes and Rex Layne. No question that Marciano was the better heavyweight.

Dempsey- Dempsey doesn't have two win against a Walcott, but it's hard to believe that he would not have gone at least 2-2 against Jersey Joe. Dempsey had so many devastating wins over good but not great heavyweights that his "victims" list is arguably as good.
Dempsey had a few losses early in his career but not as bad as Charles' losses.

Tunney-Often gets a rap that he didn't beat enough heavyweights. Doesn't get enough credit for completely dominating Heeney, who may have been the 2nd best heavyweight in the world at the time. Also beat Risko and several fringe heavyweight contenders.
Yes Dempsey was rusty the first time they fought. However, Tunney won 10 rounds to zero, hard to say if Charles could have done that.
The 2nd time, Dempsey had a fight just 3 months prior and had 2 fights with 12 months. Certainly not a prime Dempsey, but still a good win.

Tunney never lost at heavyweight. Again, Charles lost to Valdes and Layne which quite frankly are embarrassing. Losing to Harold Johnson isn't embarrassing, but you would expect a great heavyweight to beat Johnson.