How good was Jack Sharkey?

[Chicago Nights]

I've seen very little of this guy on tape, and have not decided where'd I'd rank him. Seems like a solid fighter. From what I've read, he denied throwing the Canerra fight up to his death. Here's some video for our consideration.

trEGY-q_IFA

I think he cointed the term "It's nice to be remembered, hell to be forgotten." Or something to that effect. Interesting career, fought Dempsey AND Louis.

[Russell]

Yeah, weird how he came out of a long retirement to be taken apart so badly by Louis.

Don't know why, I've always found it hard to respect Jack.

All those questionable fights or close calls, DQ's, seemed to not have anything remarkable about him either... power being medicore.

He lived to be almost a hundred, didn't he?

[janitor]

He was verry verry good.

Perhaps the most talented heavyweight between Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis. What let him down was his instability which made him inconsistent. Sort of a Golotta type. When he was on however he was a force to be reckoned with by anybody. Put Max Schmelings brain in Jack Sharkeys body and you might just have a dominant champion between Tunney and Dempsey.

His record while eratic has hidden depths. In terms of number of wins over ranked oponents he is a top 10 all time heavyweight.

[Pete47]

Jack Sharkey was a very good boxer-puncher. His fighting stance was very practical (arms in front of the center line; he could move well in any direction). I really like to watch him. Especially thefights with Schmeling. His temperament was his weakness. A fight Sharkey - Tunney could have been a classic.

[redrooster]

He was only around 190 I think. WOuld have done better in the Patterson era but forget about the ALi era