BoxRec

pound per pound wrote:

Kalan wrote:I had no idea McVey got such an early start -- a regular Mike Tyson... Too bad McVey couldn't sustain that and wipe out a few ranked Heavyweights...

Sam Langford certainly did well.. Too bad he had losses to little Gunboat Smith and Lightweight Jeff Clark during Johnson's reign or he probably would have gotten a Title Fight... Harry Wills didn't really get started until 2011. The Panther didn't get his skills going until 2015. He was too early for Johnson -- kind of like Joshua nearly missing his great fight with Klitschko because of their 14-year age gap and massive experience gap.

Jeanette certainly could have gotten a Title Fight... But Multiple losses to Sam Langford didn't help him any... He also lost to Jim Johnson, Jeff Clark, the debuting Jack Thompson, and Sam McVey during Johnson's reign... All those losses didn't help his situation.

Sam McVea a Mike Tyson? Pretty laughable. At least your learning. Lesson number two is watch he film on McVea. He's nothing close to Mike Tyson. So Johnson beat McVea when he was a teenager, and rather in-experienced and Sam Langford as the other poster said when he was 156 pounds.

GunBoat Smith, who defeated good competition famously knocked Johnson down in a sparring contest. For a while he was worthy of a title shot, far better than the likes of Flynn and Moran.

I agree Wills was too young, but he wasn't quite as young as McVea was.

I didn't imply that McVey had Tyson's fighting style... But he was a very short, squat, and muscular type of Heavyweight like Tyson was.

I meant the age... McVey was fighting top Heavyweights when he was a teenager like Tyson did ... in that respect he was a regular Iron Mike.

Sam McVea went unbeaten for almost 3 yrs and 27 fights between 1909-1912 and still couldn't get a shot at Johnson's title, and he was only the3rd most deserving fighter of that period.

Right... McVey had a really great unbeaten streak going -- including solid wins over Sam Langford and Jim Johnson... That's why McVey was under strong consideration for a World Title Fight with Jack Johnson at that time... Then he had those 4 straight losses to Sam Langford -- each one worse than the last.

Seamus wrote:Sam McVea went unbeaten for almost 3 yrs and 27 fights between 1909-1912 and still couldn't get a shot at Johnson's title, and he was only the3rd most deserving fighter of that period.

That puts into perspective. Can you imagine a heavyweight today staying unbeaten for 27 matches some of which were with class opponents completely shut out form a championship fight?

OF COURSE I CAN imagine super good Heavyweights 27-0 NOT getting Lineal Heavyweight Title Fights ALL DAY LONG ... and every day in Fistic History.

Luis Ortiz is 27-0 right now -- and crushed top Klitschko challenger Bryant Jennings like he was a sub-novice.. He also beat Tony Thompson and Malik Scott, but none of the elite Heavyweights will face Ortiz -- because he's a tall, huge, long limbed, southpaw, slick boxer-puncher who knows many ways to hurt you... He's supposed to be Anthony Joshua's top challenger -- but he's only 38... So he'll probably wait until he's at least 40 and mellowed out a little more.

Larry Holmes won 28 straight -- including beating Ken Norton and Earnie Shavers.. Holmes was even recognized by some as the Heavyweight Champion by beating Ken Norton after Spinks was stripped of the title for failing to defend against the top challenger.. However, Ali continued to ignore the undefeated Holmes as if he didn't exist.. Ali fought the 7-0-1 stripped Spinks again - and then retired rather than facing Holmes..

Ali thought he was retiring for good... But you and I both know you can sell a fight that isn't a real fight -- be it Ali-Holmes or Mayweather-McGregor

Or even the "Snake River Canyon Motorcycle Jump"