Where do you rate Harry Wills on your HW lists?

[JAB5239]

Originally Posted by greynotsoold

Ray Arcel, who saw Wills fight, who started training fighters in 1915 and finished up with Duran, called Wills a "pretty good journeyman boxer." This whole trip of Wills being 'great' is a new idea and doesn't make much sense, given that, in his era, he wasn't considered to be anything special.

Do you have a source for this? Because considering he was the #1 contender for years suggests otherwise as well as his resume over other top heavyweights. I also doubt Parcel was training fighters in 1915.....he didn't graduate high school till 1917.

[greynotsoold]

On page 300-301 of Roger Kahn's book "A Flame OF Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring '20s", Ray Arcel is quoted as saying, of Wills: "He didn't hit anywhere nears as hard as Dempsey, and he didn't move anywhere near as smoothly as Carpentier. I would rate Wills as a very good journeyman."
On page 269 of the same book Firpo is quoted as saying "The Brown Panther (Wills) is more of a wrestler than a boxer." John Lardner, in his book White Hopes and Other Tigers came to the conclusion that Dempsey would have easily beaten Wills.
Arcel regularly turned to Dempsey's demolition of Willard when asked who he thought was the greatest HW ever, saying that nobody could have beaten Dempsey that day. He was there, and I believe I have read that it was because he had a fighter on the undercard, though perhaps it could've been that he knew somebody on the undercard.