Rubin "Hurricane" Carter 1937-2014

[BennyST]

The former middleweight contender, more famous for his prison term, passed away. Whether you think of him as a victim or a murderer, what is your take on him as a fighter? Would he be a champion now, or was he the 1960's version of Curtis Stevens?

How would you rate his chances against Martinez, Quillin, and Golovkin?

I don't see Stevens ever getting a win over a true great of the game like Griffith, no matter how lucky he might get. Nothing close to be honest. He's ****e. I could definitely see Carter, at his best, handling many of the guys today with relative ease, maybe even some of the 'champs' like Quillin.

He certainly wasn't great and got absurdly overrated because of his story, but he was a lot better than much of what's around today at 160. The story that he was about to get a title shot, and become champion is ridiculous. When he went to prison he was done as a top flight fighter for good.

I'm still not sold on GGG until he fights someone good and beats them.

[BennyST]

R.I.P. Rubin "Hurricane" Carter

Though there were some similarities to Stevens, unlike Stevens, Carter had beat several contenders. I believe he would have been a titlist if he was in his prime today.

Hard for me to say because they fought different opponents. But I think everyone will agree Carter fought a higher level of competition.

He fought some horrendously good competition. There is certainly no doubting that. He fought better comp than would be possible today. I think there's no doubt he'd be a champion today, and I think he'd do very well against what is currently there. Like i said in the other post, I think he beat guys like Quillin handily. GGG, he's got an excellent chance.

Don't forget, while Carter wasn't great by any stretch, he beat Jimmy Ellis; future heavyweight champ, Emile Griffith; HOF legend, George Benton; defensive wizard and had very close fights with Luis Manuel Rodriguez; HOFer and Joey Archer; HOFer (by all standards and accounts a very bad decision which Carter should have gotten) and even his title fight with Giardello was a close one.

They are significantly better wins than what any champion at 160 has done today at the moment. No doubt whatsoever he'd be champion, it's just how good a champion he'd be today that is the question.