BoxRec

What do you think Sam McVey's legacy in boxing is? How do you think Sam should rank all time in the Heavyweight division?


Somewhere in the top 15?


Or, somewhere in the top 10?


Or better?


Why?

I have always thought he was underrated, but top 15 is pushing it. Has to be behind Ali, Louis, Foreman, Johnson, Frazier, Holmes, Holyfield, Lewis, Dempsey, Marciano, Tyson, Liston, Jeffries, and probably Bowe and Tunney. That's 15 right there.

After that, there are a lot of guys he is roughly even with; Wills, Langford, Jeannette, Corbett, Fitzsimmons, Sharkey, Schmeling, Baer, Walcott, Charles, Norton, and Patterson. So somewhere in the #16-30 range.

He gave Langford, Wills, and Jeannette all they could handle.

At 5' 10.5" and roughly 205, McVea was the same size as Frazier and Tyson. He was a hard man. Took tremendous force to knock him out and he could go all night, once went 49 rounds with Joe Jeannette. I see him forcing Tyson to back up and stopping him inside 10. Considering Tunney's brittle hands, I don't see him beating McVea in a 15 round fight, Sam would be on him like glue hammering away to his body every round and Tunney could not hurt him. Liston, Bowe and Dempsey would be toss-ups. McVea Ko'd 52 of 66 wins, so he had the guns to hurt the bully Liston, and he wouldn't have had any fear of Bowe and would've beat him the same way Golotta did, working him to the belly. As for Dempsey, he never fought anyone like McVea. The nearest would be John Lester Johnson, and many reports have Dempsey losing that one.

Frazier vs McVea would have been a war!

I see him losing to all of those guys most of the time, though he would give them trouble.

There always seems to be this idea that McVea, Wills, Langford and Jeannette were sort of the same and equal and nothing could be further from the truth.

As good as McVea and Langford were Wills had to be the best. And as good as Jeannette was he wasn't in the same league with McVea and Langford. They all fought each other so often that it is pretty easy to compare them. Jeanette belongs in sort of the Sharkey/Patterson range I'd say, whereas Langford and McVea are more in the Liston range, and then Wills, well I think Wills is easy top 10 and arguably top 5.

In 1916 when "Tham" Langford was well past his prime, he knocked Harry Wills out cold. Had they met at their respective primes. there is no doubt that Langford would have whipped Wills. Read contemporary accounts of Wills' fights. He was a good fighter but not a great one. Jeannette, who KO'd McVea in Paris, was likely Harry's superior as well.

Cap wrote:In 1916 when "Tham" Langford was well past his prime, he knocked Harry Wills out cold. Had they met at their respective primes. there is no doubt that Langford would have whipped Wills. Read contemporary accounts of Wills' fights. He was a good fighter but not a great one. Jeannette, who KO'd McVea in Paris, was likely Harry's superior as well.

Wills was 13-2-2 against Langford, but if you want to believe the one KO means that much be my guess.

He was 3-2 against McVea.

He was 1-0-2 against Jeannette.

Combined Wills was 17-4-4 against the three. Check and see how they did against each other. He was the best of the bunch.

Makes my top 20. In several other eras could have easily been champion.

McVey, Wills, Langford and Jeannette were all pretty close.
Wills record vs Langford is very misleading. Most of their fights were when Langford was well past it.

Of the 4, Langford was probably a hair better than Wills, Wills a hair better than Jeannette, and Jeannette a hair better than McVey. All are around the #16-30 range.