Quote Originally Posted by Dav
To P4Pking - yes I have seen him fight - I have footage of him in 4 of his fights (ironically 2 of these were ones he lost!!). You have to be very careful arguing about the greatest P4P as you can easily get into a situation where you argue whether blue is a better colour than red... i.e. there is no real 'answer' just opinions. I accept that with his career being so long ago, and with so little footage available, it is difficult to gauge just how good he was. In such cases you have to read as much as you can and listen to what people who were there at the time said about him. Nat Fliescher rated him very highly... No. 1 flyweight of all time. The patron and management at the Home of Boxing in the early 1900s (the National Sporting Club) rated him at the very top (and Peggy Bettinson did not suffer fools gladly!!), and Gene Tunney said of him "He is the greatest fighter I ever saw". I have a documentary on Wilde where the narrator states that a poll was conducted during the 1964 Olympic games in Mexico and the question of the greatest P4P was asked of four of the top boxing writers. Their answer was unanimous... Jimmy Wilde. Also consider that throughout his career, Jimmy fought on average every 8 days (and there was a 2 year gap towards the end!!), often 3 or 4 times a week, sometimes more than once per day. Hand injuries (of which there were many) could not be allowed to get in the way of him earning his pay, so he was often fighting whilst carrying injuries. I rest my case m'lud!!
Wow,excellent post brother. Cool Click number 1 on me