Curtis Sheppard Walker by decision. Walker was knocked out in nine rounds. Then Sheppard was knocked out in seven rounds by Perk Daniels on April 9, 1945. This was followed by a points loss at the hands of Jimmy Bivins. Sheppard then had consecutive wins over Nate Bolden, Johnny Allen, and Perkins in a rematch, before facing Jersey Joe Walcott again, and Archie Moore. He dropped decisions to Walcott and Moore, but Moore would later claim that, of all of his opponents, which included Bob Satterfield, Ezzard Charles, Rocky Marciano, Floyd Patterson, and Muhammad Ali, it was Sheppard who hit him the
Barbados Joe Walcott the aggressor throughout the bout, landing more clean blows, though there was a great deal of clinching and wrestling throughout the furious bout, likely a result of the mismatch in reach between the two opponents. In the first round, Walcott brought Gardner to his knees from a left and right to the head for a nine count, though Gardner returned to the fighting unfazed. Walcott won the world welterweight title on December 18, 1901 in Buffalo, New York, from reigning champion James "Rube" Ferns achieving a technical knockout in the fifth round. Ferns, from the reaction of the Buffalo crowd