BoxRec

Some years ago this one was in a Ring magazine "Dream Fights" issue. The writer described these two in nearly identical terms and had Lopez winning by a tko in the 11th if I recall. Its hard for me to argue against Lopez as not only was he a personal favorite, but he was a great all around boxer. I've never seen Wilde at all; I've read that he had tremendous power and skill. Gene Tunney said he was the best he had seen. From the things I've read he was an aggressive fighter, coming forward hands low bobbing and weaving to draw punches and then countering with something hard- is this an accurate description? How would that work against a tatical fighter like Lopez, with such accurate and powerful punches as he threw?

This would have been a classic - Though I don't know enough about Wilde (IMO) - Obviously from all I have read he seems right up there with Lopez in terms of ability / talent -

A true pick'em -

Could Lopez have handled a huge punching counter puncher?? - Alvarez gave him problems and he didn't have Wilde's power??

tell you the truth, i think wilde would have knocked ricardo lopez out quick.

I go with Wilde easily as well. The Ring was probably just trying to show the supposed superiority of the present fighter to sell magazines. They had Shane Mosley beating many great welterweihght champs after the DeLaHoya win.

Wilde literally gave away between 10-20 pounds in most of his fights and he still knocked guys out. Most boxing fans and fighters wonder about fighters fighting at welter or jr welter and slight poundage differences these days. Lopez, while very good, would not cope with a fighter with that type of power and who threw a lot of punches as well. Of course, we've never seen him in a fight like that. Alvarez went the distance with Lopez in a competitve fight, and knocked him down in their first fight. Lopez fought very few elite fighters, Alvarez and Sorjaturong are the only two I can think of.

Wilde would destroy Ricardo Lopez. Lopez would have been only a slight favorite over Carbajal or Humberto Gonzalez if those fights happened. Wilde is in different class.

I can't argue your selection of Wilde, though it is very hard for me to go against Lopez. The problem is that I've seen Lopez so many times, and not only haven't I seen Wilde but the only two of his fights that I ever seem to read anything about- any details, that is- are the last two of his career, both losses at a time at which all sources seem to agree that he was more than a shot fighter.

I have to say this is a pick 'em. Jimmy Wilde can KO Lopez without a doubt in my mind. But Lopez can outbox Wilde all night. Very hard to pick. That's my two cents. I feel Wilde would KO him, but then I think twice and feel Lopez would outbox Wilde. Just flip a coin to figure out who wins.

dnahar32 wrote:I go with Wilde easily as well. The Ring was probably just trying to show the supposed superiority of the present fighter to sell magazines. They had Shane Mosley beating many great welterweihght champs after the DeLaHoya win.

Wilde literally gave away between 10-20 pounds in most of his fights and he still knocked guys out. Most boxing fans and fighters wonder about fighters fighting at welter or jr welter and slight poundage differences these days. Lopez, while very good, would not cope with a fighter with that type of power and who threw a lot of punches as well. Of course, we've never seen him in a fight like that. Alvarez went the distance with Lopez in a competitve fight, and knocked him down in their first fight. Lopez fought very few elite fighters, Alvarez and Sorjaturong are the only two I can think of.

Wilde would destroy Ricardo Lopez. Lopez would have been only a slight favorite over Carbajal or Humberto Gonzalez if those fights happened. Wilde is in different class.

Wilde would not KO Lopez easily - The fact is Wilde resume isn't all that impressive (in terms of who he fought) - In fact he fought a ton of bums - Literally dozens and dozens of complete bums -

Without a doubt the man hit like a truck and could keep the pressure on - but just as Lopez never faced someone of Wilde's power....Wilde never faced anyone with Lopez's boxing skills / technique (and power)...


I mean come on Wilde won the World Fly Wt Title Vs Young Zulu Kid (who barely had a winning record at the time of the fight at 16-12-7!!)

In Wilde's first 4 defenses three of the guys had ZERO wins and the other was 8-12-1 -

meade95 wrote:The fact is Wilde resume isn't all that impressive (in terms of who he fought) - In fact he fought a ton of bums - Literally dozens and dozens of complete bums -

Thats a bold statement, what makes you say that?

meade95 wrote:

dnahar32 wrote:I go with Wilde easily as well. The Ring was probably just trying to show the supposed superiority of the present fighter to sell magazines. They had Shane Mosley beating many great welterweihght champs after the DeLaHoya win.

Wilde literally gave away between 10-20 pounds in most of his fights and he still knocked guys out. Most boxing fans and fighters wonder about fighters fighting at welter or jr welter and slight poundage differences these days. Lopez, while very good, would not cope with a fighter with that type of power and who threw a lot of punches as well. Of course, we've never seen him in a fight like that. Alvarez went the distance with Lopez in a competitve fight, and knocked him down in their first fight. Lopez fought very few elite fighters, Alvarez and Sorjaturong are the only two I can think of.

Wilde would destroy Ricardo Lopez. Lopez would have been only a slight favorite over Carbajal or Humberto Gonzalez if those fights happened. Wilde is in different class.

Wilde would not KO Lopez easily - The fact is Wilde resume isn't all that impressive (in terms of who he fought) - In fact he fought a ton of bums - Literally dozens and dozens of complete bums -

Without a doubt the man hit like a truck and could keep the pressure on - but just as Lopez never faced someone of Wilde's power....Wilde never faced anyone with Lopez's boxing skills / technique (and power)...


I mean come on Wilde won the World Fly Wt Title Vs Young Zulu Kid (who barely had a winning record at the time of the fight at 16-12-7!!)

In Wilde's first 4 defenses three of the guys had ZERO wins and the other was 8-12-1 -

If you read the quote at the bottom of those pages it says:
- NB this record may be incomplete and/or inaccurate -



I love Ricardo Lopez, he's one of the best little guys ever to lace up gloves, but Wilde is even greater. Wilde by TKO anywhere from 8-12, probably on cuts.

Sherlock wrote:

meade95 wrote:

dnahar32 wrote:I go with Wilde easily as well. The Ring was probably just trying to show the supposed superiority of the present fighter to sell magazines. They had Shane Mosley beating many great welterweihght champs after the DeLaHoya win.

Wilde literally gave away between 10-20 pounds in most of his fights and he still knocked guys out. Most boxing fans and fighters wonder about fighters fighting at welter or jr welter and slight poundage differences these days. Lopez, while very good, would not cope with a fighter with that type of power and who threw a lot of punches as well. Of course, we've never seen him in a fight like that. Alvarez went the distance with Lopez in a competitve fight, and knocked him down in their first fight. Lopez fought very few elite fighters, Alvarez and Sorjaturong are the only two I can think of.

Wilde would destroy Ricardo Lopez. Lopez would have been only a slight favorite over Carbajal or Humberto Gonzalez if those fights happened. Wilde is in different class.

Wilde would not KO Lopez easily - The fact is Wilde resume isn't all that impressive (in terms of who he fought) - In fact he fought a ton of bums - Literally dozens and dozens of complete bums -

Without a doubt the man hit like a truck and could keep the pressure on - but just as Lopez never faced someone of Wilde's power....Wilde never faced anyone with Lopez's boxing skills / technique (and power)...


I mean come on Wilde won the World Fly Wt Title Vs Young Zulu Kid (who barely had a winning record at the time of the fight at 16-12-7!!)

In Wilde's first 4 defenses three of the guys had ZERO wins and the other was 8-12-1 -

If you read the quote at the bottom of those pages it says:
- NB this record may be incomplete and/or inaccurate -



I love Ricardo Lopez, he's one of the best little guys ever to lace up gloves, but Wilde is even greater. Wilde by TKO anywhere from 8-12, probably on cuts.

My Bad -

Though still doing some google searches of many of the guys Wilde fought brings up a lot of guys that were never rated at all ...or have unoffical records that still show them to be complete bums in the fights that are listed -

It was a different era of fighting when Wilde fought (I understand that) but that also means Wilde fought many guys that were club type fighters, with simply raw technique and so forth -

He never fought anyone as technically sound (or as fast with a right hand) as R. Lopez -

After building a fantastic reputation for himself in the boxing booths of Wales, Jimmy had his first professional contest against Les Williams in a three round no decision.  He then embarked on a series of wins that would later establish him as a legend of the fight game.

Notable victories - and there were many - included an eighteenth round knockout of Billy Padden to take the British 98lb championship, a 6 round K.O. of Frenchman Eugene Husson and wins over world title claimants Sid Smith and Joe Symonds (Symonds had previously beaten Percy Jones - the first Welshman to claim a world title). Wilde remained unbeaten for four years and a total of 101 fights ! (including no decisions). They came, they saw and in the vast majority of cases they were knocked out !

Challenging for the British & European flyweight titles, in his 102nd contest, Jimmy Wilde tasted defeat for the first time after his corner threw in the towel in the 17th round against Scotland's Tancy Lee. Wilde had been ill just prior to the fight and was exhausted when his corner threw the towel in to signal the end of the contest. Afterward Jimmy instructed his corner to NEVER throw the towel in again - no matter what.

Once back in the ring he returned to his winning ways. 19 contests brought 19 wins before Wilde finally got Tancy Lee to face him again. There was to be no repeat win for the Scotsman as the Welsh 'Mighty Atom' scored repeatedly with devastating body punches to end the fight in eleven rounds, thereby avenging his earlier defeat and taking the British & European flyweight titles.

During the run of 19 wins Jimmy had met and beaten Joe Symonds, for the second time, by way of a 12th round K.O. At the time, 1916, Symonds was regarded in Britain as the World Flyweight Champion. Another claimant to the World flyweight title was Johnny Rosner, but he too succumbed to the power of the 'Mighty Atom' as he was defeated in eleven rounds. However, Jimmy was still not universally recognised as World Champion until later that same year.

During the First World War, Jimmy Wilde served as a Sergeant Instructor fighting professionally only twice in 1917 and three times in 1918. One of these fights was against Joe Conn, who was the leading contender for the British featherweight title. Putting on a tremendous performance Jimmy ko'd his featherweight opponent in twelve rounds. His first contest after the Great War was against Joe Lynch who took a hammering for 15 rounds before Jimmy was declared the points winner. Joe Lynch later went on to beat Pete Herman to become World Bantamweight Champion.

The above is an abridged version of the page at http://www.johnnyowen.com/jimmy_wilde.html

The boxers mentioned, in the above paragraphs, may not be universally recognised names now, but at the time they were some of the best around - and in an era that spawned many, many great fighters.

Owain wrote:The boxers mentioned, in the above paragraphs, may not be universally recognised names now, but at the time they were some of the best around - and in an era that spawned many, many great fighters.

Well said Owain.

Jimmy Wildes Boxing credentials are of the very highest standard. In a sport where the word 'great' if very over-used, as far as I am concerned The Mighty Atom is a TRUE great of the Boxing ring.

The era of Jimmy Wilde bred them tough and they also fought rough.

Todays game has been brought up to date with safety a big concern, Lopez whilst a true great campaigned around a very small weight difference where as Wilde fought guys significantly heavier.

I would favour Wilde as being too strong, but then again Ricardo could outbox Wilde....I just favour the old-timer and a fellow Taff.

That is a shame, really, as Lopez was clearly among the best of the 1990s, and arguably the best of that decade.