BoxRec

Few have Sharkey very high up in their all-time lists today, but I believe a top 30 rating is a must and a top 20 rating would not be outlandish either.

Sharkey - born as Josef Paul Zukauskas to Lithuanian immigrant parents - was extremely talented albeit a tad inconsistent. He was an elite heavyweight at least between 1926 and 1933, with two great runs in 1926/27 and then again 1928-30. During the first run, Sharkey accumulated wins over top contenders Johnny Risko, George Godfrey, Jim Maloney, and HOFer Harry Wills. During the second run, he beat HOFers and former L-H world champions Jack Delaney and Tommy Loughran, and HOFer Young Stribling. Both runs came to an end only because of questionable losses against HOFers Jack Dempsey (on a sucker punch) and Max Schmeling (on a DQ).

Sharkey appeared to slow around 1931 though, and won the HW title in 1932 only because a highly controversial decisions over Max Schmeling. After this he visibly deteriorated, losing fights against Carnera and Loughran who he had previusly beaten. His comeback in 1935 was ill-afted, being terminated withing 3 rounds by Joe Louis in 1936.

Prime Sharkey on film looks great and pretty complete, with no obvoius weaknesses. Fast hands and feet allowed him to fight at a blistering pace, lots of body movement permitted him to get inside - he was shorter than many of his oppoennts - where he would display excellent infighting skills. Sharkey also had punching power in both hands.

With a bit more luck and a better ref, it would have been him who would have challenged Gene Tunney in 1927, and this would have been a very interesting title fight indeed. With a bit better timing in a crucial moment he would have stood an excellent chance to beat Schmeling in 1930.

With both things lacking, however, he ended up as heavyweight champ for a very short and unspectacular period only.

There was some talk he was a mob fighter, partly owned by Owney "The Killer" Madden. Sharkey was photographed in the company of none other than Big Al Capone. It's generally assumed he took a dive against Carnera.

Cap

Cap wrote:There was some talk he was a mob fighter, partly owned by Owney "The Killer" Madden. Sharkey was photographed in the company of none other than Big Al Capone. It's generally assumed he took a dive against Carnera.

Cap

Carnera was a mob fighter for some of his career, but Sharkey? This would be news to me.

Sharkey fiercely disputed all his life that he had taken a dive against Carnera, and the film suggests indeed that the KO was legit.

i agree i rate sharkey top 25 of all time. i think he might have beaten tunney. it certainly would have been close. tunney was defintley reluctant to fight sharkey after the way he saw sharkey handle dempsey in 1927. lets just say he breathed a sigh of relief when he got to fight tom heeney instead of jack sharkey. sharkey also had balls, he fought top black fighters of that era. not many white fighters did that. tunney certainly didnt. jack sharkey told my father on there fishing trip that tunney retired cause he wanted no part of him.sharkey was one of the most complete all around fighters in history. sharkey had a very low KO percentage which is very decieving cause sharkey could punch. he had hand problems early in his career that caused some of his lack of power, but sharkey had a devastating left hook. one thing i didnt like about sharkey though was he kept his hands low

dive may be worse than getting knocked out in terms of legacy and accomplishments. but taking a dive does nothing to ur repuation head to head. getting knocked out hurts ur repuation. think about it, when u take a dive u dont try so they clearly did not beat a peak version of you.

so if sharkey did take a dive vs primo, u cant use this against him in fantasy matchups vs for example lennox lewis and say "o well look at how a superheavyweight like primo knocked him out, lennox would do the same." cause primo didnt really beat sharkey.

BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:i agree i rate sharkey top 25 of all time. i think he might have beaten tunney. it certainly would have been close. tunney was defintley reluctant to fight sharkey after the way he saw sharkey handle dempsey in 1927. lets just say he breathed a sigh of relief when he got to fight tom heeney instead of jack sharkey. sharkey also had balls, he fought top black fighters of that era. not many white fighters did that. tunney certainly didnt. jack sharkey told my father on there fishing trip that tunney retired cause he wanted no part of him.sharkey was one of the most complete all around fighters in history. sharkey had a very low KO percentage which is very decieving cause sharkey could punch. he had hand problems early in his career that caused some of his lack of power, but sharkey had a devastating left hook. one thing i didnt like about sharkey though was he kept his hands low

Nice to read.

Decagon wrote:

BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:dive may be worse than getting knocked out in terms of legacy and accomplishments. but taking a dive does nothing to ur repuation head to head. getting knocked out hurts ur repuation. think about it, when u take a dive u dont try so they clearly did not beat a peak version of you.

A dive means a hell of a lot in head-to-head matchups. If we did a head-to-head matchup between Sharkey and Langford, what's to say that he wouldn't take a dive against Langford?

cause in head to head matchup we take the PEAK versions of fighters. not the versions of fighters who take dives.