Sandy McCarthy-Top-10 All Time?

[srehm1]

Here is an interesting case for those who enjoy ranking fighters. McCarthy was one of the great 'young' fighters to come along. He came on the scene in 93-94 and was champ and remained in the top-5 for the next 6 years. On top of that he remained a top-10 HW basically until his last two years with NY/Boston where it was obvious he was done.

During his prime, in his Calgary years (93-94 to 97-98) he was in the championship mix-either champ or in the running-as well as having some memorable bouts. Scored two wins over Probert, a memorable series against Jim McKenzie, wins over Grimson, Baumgartner, DKordic, Simon, &tc. he had some great fights with Ray, Odjick, McSorley, Simpson, Oliwa, Donnelly, Churla...

I liked his fighting style. He was big and could chuck'em fast. He switched up hands well and that could be a tough matchup for fighters. He fought openly but also displayed good defense and ability to tie up his opponents. He had Probert's right arm all wrapped up in round 1.

Now the cons... Brashear destroyd him. Laraque pounded him. Both were great fighters but the beatdowns were big and helped to solidify how great both Brashear and Laraque really were. Didn't seem like the same fighter after he left Calgary but he was still very good and then really fell off in his last two years.

I think his fights with Brashear and Laraque have overshadowed somewhat what I believe to be a great fighting career.

He didn't suffer a major loss until the 98-99 season when he was TKO'd by Patrick Cote. That's 1 major loss in over 100 fights to that point in his career. In fact during his entire career he doesn't have very many clear cut losses on his resume. He has some close losses, edge losses or split decisions, but not many major defeats. he also didn't suffer many TKO/KO/KD losses during his career, either.

Now many believe both Brashear and laraque to be top-10 all timers. is there room for McCarthy? Does he fit in? How does his career compare to the other 'usual suspects' who grace our top-10's?

Any thoughts, guys?

[Churla22]

Been awhile since I updated my rankings, and I will have to give this some more thought, but I think he has a GREAT argument.

[Trognitz]

he pops in and out of my top 10. his time in Calgary was certainly deserving, a total monster. he faded badly in his last years.

[brad houghton]

Great thread srehm1

This is a good debate to have

I have to think about this and come back to it.....There is a strong case to be made for Sandy in the top 10 and he does get hurt more than he should I think by his challenges with Brash and BGL and his late career fade......a true force of nature when he broke in and one of the great beginnings to a career

[GIANTSFAN]

Sandy McCarthy is in my top 7 without question. His fight card is impressive & he rarely lost during his time in Calgary.
I don't really care that he went downhill after leaving the Flames. He did enough & won some incredible fights during his time as a Flame to easily make top 7. Alltime, he's only behind Probert, Brashear, Laraque, ...unbelievable fighter, unquestionably the Champ over Twist because of his fight card & impressive TKO's & KO's. Most fighters fade as they get older, but looking at his prime, none better.

[Killah_punk]

I had the chance to meet him after a practice back when he was with the Flames, he was real nice and signed a hockey card for me and signed a puck for my buddy. At the end of practice he took the time to say hi to all the kids watching along the glass. I was around 14 at the time and my first thought was holy cow this man is monster! Anyways here's some of my favorite fights from McCarthy. He's had some great T2T battles.

‪Odjick vs McCarthy‬‏ -...

‪sandy mccarthy vs jim mckenzie...

‪Sandy McCarthy vs Jim McKenzie ...

‪gord donnelly vs sandy...

‪Sandy McCarthy vs Shane Churla...

‪Marty McSorley Fights‬‏ -...

‪Sandy McCarthy vs Francois Leroux Round...

‪Sandy McCarthy vs Eric Boulton Round...

[GIANTSFAN]

You forgot to mention the slugfest in Colorado vs Chris Simon or the one vs Stock when Bonvie was with Philly & McCarthy in NY. Both were outstanding fights.

[Flyer_Frank]

The Flyers needed a respected enforcer when they got him from Tampa. He was only here parts of two years, but I thought he helped and didn't like the trade that sent him off. Top notch enforcer and decent enough to take a regular shift.

He was with Philly for that Cote fight, and I thought it was more of a flash knockdown than a TKO beatdown.

[bruiser11]

I think McCarthy beat Probert in that one from the 93-94 season. Probert butted McCarthy. Good tilt though.

McCarthy was a good fighter.

[BENNETTWOLF]

I won't go into real depth now but sandy is currently in mine around the #7-9 range. I'm glad to see him "rebound" because he was getting hammered for a while on the boards after his supposed drastic decline after calgary. "Sandra" and so forth.

Great, great fighter. It's interesting to note that probert said he hit the hardest in his biography. Always interesting that fighters seem to overlook or ignore certain guys for whatever reason. For instance, i can't recall BP mentioning Dave Brown whatsoever. Also unique that i (like possibly most of us) never thought of McCarthy as a particularly noted or feared puncher, more of an exceptionally fluid superheavyweight.

Maybe he's a guy that people focus on his big losses (helmet cracked by brash etc) than his really impressive ledger of big wins. The glass is more than half full IMO.

[T800m101]

I think McCarthy is just outside the top-10, somewhere in the 11-15 range. He was great in his prime and the champ in his first two years in the NHL. However, his last few years in the NHL really hurt his overall ranking I think, he was a complete shell of his former self.

[BENNETTWOLF]

In addition, i think it's more of a feather, and a highly impressive one, in the cap for the guys that handled him well like Brash, Marty Mac, BGL, Cairns late in his career or laus etc than it detracts from sandy. He and Jim Mckenzie deserve full marks for their scorching three fight series no matter who won, lost or drew etc.

[acdcrocksno1]

I have him on the edge of the top ten 11-14 range

[BENNETTWOLF]

It's also interesting to note that McCarthy holds wins over a lot of the guys challenging for the semi-mythical "title". He bested probert, won that T2T battle vs simon due to a KD or balance issue and edged twist in an anticlimactic bout. That's pretty solid work against his elite peers in that time frame.

Funny that both simon and twist may have more passionate fans. I wonder if sandy had been in a bigger media market in his salad days if it wouldn't have helped his cause. As an example, i only remember seeing him fight as a flame live vs Brendan Witt twice in one game. Calgary didn't appear that often on prime time, east coast TV etc, and it wasn't until he left that i saw more of him in TB, philly and so on.

Definitely a better card than the older crew like nystrom or playfair who remain in my top 10. A title claimant as well. Sometimes it seems like reverse reasoning in all time rankings threads. Like if he is #18, who are the 17 ahead of him? Or in my case, if marty mcsorley isn't a top 10 guy (he grew on me), who are the 10 or more better?

That's part of why i like Srehm's "approximate placing" idea. I wouldn't quibble with placing mccarthy around 6-13 but reserve the right to question guys ahead of him.

Rob Ray? really? and so on. You can make a devils advocate case against virtually anyone. We just had a recent poster make a case that bob probert's "decline" and "horrible" losses lower him to around #6.

Hmmm?

[T800m101]

edged twist in an anticlimactic bout.

I fail to see how McCarthy gets the win in that bout. The number of connected of punches was dead even, and neither of them landed any good shots. Twist lost his edge and fell. I don't see how it can be anything more than an average draw.