The great Joe Walcott, the “Barbados Demon,” who fought in four classes with considerable success, is my choice as the leading welterweight, while the mighty Joe Gans and Benny Leonard lead the lightweights. Each was a ring marvel. There was very little difference between the pair in cleverness and general ability. Terry McGovern, clever Jem Driscoll, and Abe Attell, are the leading figures in the featherweight class, which includes such wonderful boxers who made ring history in this division as Johnny Dundee, Johnny Kilbane, Kid Chocolate, Willie Pep, and Young Griffo. The bantam division produced such memorable names as George Dixon (“Little Chocolate”) Pete Herman, and Kid Williams. Looking over the list of heavyweight champions from Sullivan to Patterson, we find that the majority of the leaders were fighting men who could hit. Who hit the hardest? That’s a matter of opinion. Tommy Burns, Jack Johnson, and Jess Willard were harder hitters than Corbett or Tunney, but of the trio, only Johnson possessed the cleverness and speed that distinguished these two master boxers. Johnson was a marvelous boxer with all-around ability, and I am not the only boxing writer to rate him as the kingpin of the heavyweights. However, as a powerful hitter he lacked the punishing effectiveness of Jeffries, Fitzsimmons, Tom Sharkey, Dempsey, Louis, and Marciano. Willard had a heavy wallop, as his fight with Bull Young, whom he killed in the ring at Vernon, California, in 1915, certainly proved. But that tragic misfortune made Big Jess extremely cautious in all of his subsequent battles. In his fight with Dempsey, after being floored seven times in the opening round, and battered about the ring until he was virtually helpless, he jarred Jack with a right to the jaw in the third round that almost floored him. Coming down to Tunney, we find in him the cleverest of all heavyweights from the time of Corbett. He was a master boxer, an excellent jabber, and extremely fast. In him, Dempsey faced his cleverest opponent, a boxer who, despite the much-discussed “long count,” whipped him decisively both in Philadelphia and in Chicago. But Tunney’s inability to stop Dempsey when he had him at his mercy in Philadelphia was fair proof of his deficiencies as a puncher. He crashed his fists so frequently against Jack’s face that one of Dempsey’s eyes was partially closed in each contest, but Gene couldn’t finish his man. The big wallop which men like Sullivan, Jeff, Fitz and Dempsey were able to deliver in their heyday, was the missing ingredient in Tunney’s make-up. As for Joe Louis, there is no need to go into details about his hitting. He was on a par with Dempsey in that respect, but wasn’t as fast and couldn’t take it on the chin as could Jack. Joe was an exceedingly slow starter, yet one of the greatest in the division for setting up an opponent for the “kill.” His record as a heavyweight is one of the best.