FIGHT LINE LAYOUT:
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The list looks cluttered, but it's easy enough when you get used to it.
-Starting from the left for each fight is year, month and day.
-Next is the first fighter's name.
-Then the number of Rated fights he's had.
-Then, in brackets, comes his rating before and after the fight.
(e.g. (2000>2050)).
-The fight result comes next, followed by his opponent's name, etc.
About the non-fight lines that are scattered throughout the list:
1.Sometimes a second line appears under the line described above.
It says something like "Rate down nnn by absence. *". That means the
fighter is penalized for non-activity. So-many points for so-many
six month periods of inactivity. (See "ABOUT VARIABLES").
2.Championship fights are preceeded by a blank line and the phrase
"***CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT:". In these days of alphabet-soup multiple ersatz
'champions', we recognize only the 'linear' champ. That is the champion
descended as is royalty (only in this case by virtue of a series of punches
in the nose) from the great John L. Sullivan.
"***CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT:" is followed by the weights of the contestants.
An early one is '178/212'; the Corbett - Sullivan weights in 1892.
3.A line similar to the 'Championship' line above showed up as of September,
2005 (month 052). For a fighter in the TOP10 List (qv) of the relevent
month a line appears showing current 'before' and 'after' fight ratings
eg. ( 9, 3) above each fighter. The weights are also shown if available.
The line is preceeded by a blank line for emphasis.
The above TOP10 are "best guesses" and are derived from the TOP10 List as
follows:
a>The fighter's TOP10 rating before the fight comes from the TOP10 Listing
for the month before the fight. The 'after' rating comes from the TOP10
List for the month of the fight. Where a fighter fights more than once
in a calender month this can cause difficulties. (See JACK DEMPSEY's
ELEVEN fights in the second half of 1918!)
b>If the fighter is not in the TOP10 List (due to absence rules) a
"should-have-been" rating is used for the 'before' rating. This is
calculated by comparing the fighter's earned Rating points with the
previous month TOP10 earned Rating points and using the closest TOP10
rating. Again, the 'after' rating comes from his rating on the month
of the fight.
YEAR-END RATINGS
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-The 'CHAMP:' is always listed first on a separate line, as becomes royalty.
He will be in the body of the listing in Rate sequence if he has fought in
the preceeding 12 months.
("Title vacant" applies to only three years. In 1928 and 1929 Tex Rickard
was setting up an elimination tournament to replace the retired Gene
Tunney. In 1979 Muhammad Ali retired. He should have stayed retired.)
The weights on the 'CHAMP' line are rounded up to even pounds.
-Next, the Rated fighters who have fought in the last 12 months are listed
in their latest Rate sequence. If the champion has fought within the year
he shows up again there.
(Champions are not listed in Rate sequence unless they have been active.
For example, Jack Dempsey, champion from 1919 until 1926 is not listed
in Rate sequence in 1922, 1924 or 1925, because he was idle in those
years. He did have exhibitions in 1922, but exhibitions are ignored in
our System).
-An asterisk (*) after his name indicates the fighter was rated this year
for the first time.
LAST 12 MONTHS RATINGS:
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Because the Site is updated monthly, the last rating is usually not
'YEAR-END' but 'LAST 12 MONTHS'. 'Usually' indeed; that's 11 out of 12
times.
It's the same as 'YEAR-END' except:
-the month just completed is noted,
-there is no asterisk (*) following a new fighters name,
-# of fights in the year is omitted.
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As you can imagine, the results in this System are heavily dependent on the
input. If it is wrong or incomplete the results will be garbage.
As they say in the computer game, GI-GO (garbage in - garbage out).
I've taken some liberties with the results of old-time fights as follows:
-I've mostly adhered to Bob Bordier's dictum that you're headed down a
slippery slope when you "correct" decisions that were unjust.
I took a tentative step down that slippery slope:
1> Bob Fitzsimmons' disqualification for "fouling" Tom Sharkey back in
1896 was such an egregious fix for big money that I've changed the
result to No Contest. This change was implemented in the April, 2004
update, month 035.
2>I've changed results also in the case of Primo Carnera's early fights.
His manager at the time, Leon See, carefully documented which fights
were legitimate and which were not. Those early fixed fights are
excluded.
-Where fights were very one-sided, or very close, I've altered decisions
to reflect that. I've used 'Wu' and 'Ws' before they were invented.
It should tend to give a more accurate picture of reality. The title
fight between Jeffries and Sharkey was close. Some scribes thought Sharkey
won. Jack Johnson beat Sam McVey very definitely in their two fights in
1903. Tommy Burns easily defeated Hart and Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, etc.
These fights have been 'corrected' to Ws or Wu as appropriate.
-No decision fights (ND) have been altered to just show the results if a
newspaper decision was given. Where I determine that result from my own
research, rather than a record book, I'm careful to record only unequivical
results.
"PHANTOM FITES" appear at the end of most years. This means I don't have
complete records for those fighters, and don't want to penalize them for
inactivity.
Effective with month 016 (March 17, 2002), those fights have disappeared.
They still perform their 'good deed', but have been removed from the list
for aesthetic purposes.
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