Harry Wills Is he better than others

[Rspen46]

Why is Harry Wills generally rated under Sam Langford, Sam Mcvey & Joe Jeannette, when it seems he had the advantage over them in their fights, especially Langford, whom many think was much better than Wills, yet, from looking at the records he may have beaten Langford as many as 10 times or so to a few losses, & beat him bad in several of those bouts.
So why is he generally ranked under all 3 from just about any info I can find.

[Cardinal Buck]

Is he rated under Sam McVey and Joe Jeannette?

[NChristo]

Haven't seen him rated under McVea or Jeanette, the reason he is ranked below Langford is because you might be looking at p4p lists and Langfords career below Heavy blows Wills' career out of the water, Heavyweight ranking would be a different story.

[rightsideup]

most of the willis Langford bouts were after sam's prime

[Rspen46]

I agree that most of the Langford bouts were after his Prime, but still Sam was beating & knocking out decent fighters during that time, & I've read in many places that some even question how good Will's was, I just seem to read more about the other 3, of course Langford, but the other 2 seem to be more highly regarded than Will's, but still Will's beat Sam at least 10x, no matter when he did it, Sam was still beating others when he lost to Will's, so that's a solid accomplishment, from I can find to read on other's opinions, old timers, experts & such & the video I can find, at HW only, I rate the 4 of them in this order, Will's, Langford, Jeannette & McVey, they say Dempsey avoided Will's also, as he was ranked #1 some during Dempsey's reign, but can't find anything legit to back that up, just his camp did not want to fight Blacks at the time, & P. Uzcudan beat Will's at that time he was ranked #1, so I saw if he did it, so then would Dempsey have beaten him, but I just wish, Dempsey, & Tunney both had fought all 4 Black great fighters, that would have been 8 awesome fights anyone at the time or now would have paid to see.
I also wish they had not dropped Uzcudan out of the tournament they were conducting to see who fought Dempsey, just because he took the Will's fight, Uzcudan would have given Dempsey or Tunney a good fight also. & him against the other 3 great black fighters would have been good, but also.

[rightsideup]

You are making some great points. With out a doubt it would have been nice to see Dempsey more active when he had the title and the great black fighter's of the era getting a crack at the title. It has been said that America was not ready for a racially mixed bout at the time. Promoter Tex Richard was still the top player in boxing and Johnsons victory over Jeffries caused riots which caused many senseless deaths and injuries in a bout he promoted. If these contenders (wills, Langford, Jeanette, etc ) where allowed to fight for the title the makeup of Dempseys title opponents would have changed and even tunney might have had to fight and beat one of the highly rated black fighters but was America ready for that yet. It certainly was when Joe Louis came along but times were slowly changing in a positive manner.
I also like the fact you bring up Uzcudan as he was a long time player in the division and even fought Joe Louis.

Its been quoted a few times on this forum the respect Dempsey had for Langford and I am sure he respected willis as well but was managed to take the least risk for the most return.