ANOTHER IMPOSSIBLE LIST

Here we go folks. I was born in 1963 so this list is going to be my take on the most accomplished fighters since then and my justification. Here is my criteria

1) Great fighters beaten
2) Ranked fighters beaten
3) Wrecking one or more divisions
4) Being a daring matchmaker

Things that don't matter include

1) Fighting style
2) Fan friendliness
3) Being a good/bad guy
4) My guess as to how guy A would do against guy B.

Now I think ranking by numbers is damned near impossible. So in many cases I am going to rank in groups that I think belong together and within that grouping you can rank any way you want.

1. Muhammad Ali-It's almost incomprehensible how impressive his resume is. Five wins over arguably top ten all-time heavies and 11-3 against HOFers. Over thirty wins over ranked heavies.
2. Roberto Duran-One of the three greatest lightweights of all time. One of the five most prestigious wins in history over Ray Leonard. Defeated top fighters from featherweight (Ernesto Marcel) to middleweight (Iran Barkley). Beat HOFers at 135, 147 and took one of the top 3 middles of all time to the limit.
3. Ray Leonard-As good set of top four wins as anyone who ever fought. He beat Duran, Hearns, Benitez and Hagler. Likely only his lack of durability kept him from being higher.
4. Pernell Whittaker-Yeah it was a draw, but he dominated a top 20 or so all-timer in Julio Cesar Chavez and a top fiftyish guy in Azumah Nelson. Dominated both lightweight and welterweight divisions for a decade while fighting the best of both.

Numbers 5-12.

Carlos Monzon-5-0 against HOFers and fourteen defenses. A true division wrecker.
Marvin Hagler-12 defenses, all but one against a top five guy. Fought anyone and everyone.
Alexis Arguello-Three lineal titles, the greatest run at 130 in history. Dominated in all three divisions. One of the great self-testers the sport has seen. Over 25 wins over ranked guys.
Evander Holyfield-The greatest cruiser ever and an excellent heavyweight. A warrior's warrior.
Jose Napoles-Big wins at 135, 140 and 147. Only got a title shot at 147. 4-1 against HOFers. Over 20 wins over ranked contenders.
Manny Pacquiao-Four lineal titles, sixish wins over likely HOFers. Fighter of the last ten years
Carlos Ortiz-The greatest Puerto Rican. 8-3-1 against HOFers. Best lightweight in a very good era.
Julio Cesar Chavez-The greatest Mexican of all time. Almost forty wins in "title" fights. Think about that.

Numbers 13-19

Tommy Hearns-As hard a puncher as we've had in the sport. Suffers by being in the same era as Leonard and Hagler. Crushing wins over HOFers Duran and Cuevas and beating Wilfredo Benitez at his own game and 15+ wins over ranked fighters must be recognized.
George Foreman-It happened!
Wilfredo Benitez-Youngest champion in history. Wins over HOFers Pambele, Palomino and Duran. Losses to Hearns and Leonard.
Ruben Olivares-Greatest bodypuncher I've seen. Top three bantam of all time, also an excellent featherweight. Fought EVERYONE.
Ricardo Lopez-Greatest 105 ever. 25 defenses. Fought EVERYBODY. Chose to fight nemisis Bufalo Alvarez when Alvarez weighed in TWO divisions heavier.
Bob Foster-One of the terrifying LHW of all time. Unbelievable puncher. 14 title defenses. His only losses from 1965-1977 were to top ten all-time heavyweights.
Michael Spinks-The best of one of the great eras of LHW in history. Wins over Larry Holmes to become heavy champion extremely prestigous.

Numbers 20-28

Roy Jones Junior-Perhaps the greatest athlete ever to lace'm up. Dominated James Toney and Bernard Hopkins. Quality of conquests falls off a great deal after that. Unbeaten before he was 35. Left a series of guys unfought who could have improved his ranking here.
Bernard Hopkins-Seven defenses as THE MAN. Cleaned out a weak middleweight era. Big wins over famous fighters.
James Toney-We think of him as a fat underachieving guy. But in fact he was a GREAT middle and beat top guys from middle to heavyweight.
Joe Frazier-Win over Ali one of the prestigous in history. Only lost to top five heavyweights Ali and Foreman.
Floyd Mayweather Junior-As gifted as anyone in history. Three lineal titles. List of unfought foes hurts him.
Miguel Canto-The great non-punching Mexican flyweight. 14 defenses as THE MAN and defended all over the world.
Salvador Sanchez-4-0 against HOFers when he died at 23. Already had a dozen wins over ranked guys. Had he lived? Could be in top five.
Nicolino Locche-As unique as they come. Dominant 140.
Dick Tiger-7-5-1 against HOFers and THE MAN at both 160 and 175.


The remainder of this list includes great, great fighters who have an argument for being in the top 25.

Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barerra, both Marquez brothers, Antonio Cervantes, Jung Koo Chang, Chiquita Gonzales, Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya, Mike McCallum, Aaron Pryor, DM Qawi, MS Muhammad, Khaosai Galaxy and Azumah Nelson.

As usual, I have 43 names for my top 25. Sheesh.

Where am I wrong and whom did I forget?

Lennox Lewis would have to be on my list. He defeated every professional opponent he faced. He was the best and most consistent fighter in his division for ten years. Two bad KO losses but it is the Heavyweight division after all, guys get dropped. He avenged these losses by handing his foe's a KO a piece (the Mccall thing is just weird). He was the undisputed Heavy Weight champ and when he fought angry (which wasn't very often) he was great. A technically great fighter, some argue too technical. He is the best heavyweight of his era and a deserved HOFer.

hardcoreBEE24 wrote:

Lennox Lewis would have to be on my list. He defeated every professional opponent he faced. He was the best and most consistent fighter in his division for ten years. Two bad KO losses but it is the Heavyweight division after all, guys get dropped. He avenged these losses by handing his foe's a KO a piece (the Mccall thing is just weird). He was the undisputed Heavy Weight champ and when he fought angry (which wasn't very often) he was great. A technically great fighter, some argue too technical. He is the best heavyweight of his era and a deserved HOFer.

Agree with everything except being the best heavy of his era. That's Evander.

marbleheadmaui wrote:

hardcoreBEE24 wrote:

Lennox Lewis would have to be on my list. He defeated every professional opponent he faced. He was the best and most consistent fighter in his division for ten years. Two bad KO losses but it is the Heavyweight division after all, guys get dropped. He avenged these losses by handing his foe's a KO a piece (the Mccall thing is just weird). He was the undisputed Heavy Weight champ and when he fought angry (which wasn't very often) he was great. A technically great fighter, some argue too technical. He is the best heavyweight of his era and a deserved HOFer.

Agree with everything except being the best heavy of his era. That's Evander.

I guess that depends on how you look at it. Holyfield was more of a fans fighter and Lennox a fighters fighter.

Holyfield lost twice to Bowe who avoided Lewis.

Holyfield beat the much larger Bowe in their second match.

Holyfield after three wars with Bowe beats Tyson... TWICE!!!!!

Holyfield loses to great light heavy Moorer which would be a major blemish but returns to kick the shit out of him in the rematch.

Tough decision but I'm going to stick with Lewis as the best of the era. If you ask me next week I might have a different answer though.

hardcoreBEE24 wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

hardcoreBEE24 wrote:

Lennox Lewis would have to be on my list. He defeated every professional opponent he faced. He was the best and most consistent fighter in his division for ten years. Two bad KO losses but it is the Heavyweight division after all, guys get dropped. He avenged these losses by handing his foe's a KO a piece (the Mccall thing is just weird). He was the undisputed Heavy Weight champ and when he fought angry (which wasn't very often) he was great. A technically great fighter, some argue too technical. He is the best heavyweight of his era and a deserved HOFer.

Agree with everything except being the best heavy of his era. That's Evander.

I guess that depends on how you look at it. Holyfield was more of a fans fighter and Lennox a fighters fighter.

Holyfield lost twice to Bowe who avoided Lewis.

Holyfield beat the much larger Bowe in their second match.

Holyfield after three wars with Bowe beats Tyson... TWICE!!!!!

Holyfield loses to great light heavy Moorer which would be a major blemish but returns to kick the shit out of him in the rematch.

Tough decision but I'm going to stick with Lewis as the best of the era. If you ask me next week I might have a different answer though.

Here we go again with Lewis. LOL: I'm tired of writing the same essay on why I think Lewis is the best HW of his era. Let's just say he's probably the most avoided HW ever. I love the list Marble. Great work. I think Salvador Sanchez should be ranked much higher. Must better technician than Evander Holyfield. No way anyone can put together a list that everyone agrees on, but yours is about as good as it gets.

I don't really do these things, but I probably would have ranked Lennox Lewis and Calzaghe

marble congradulations..this post took a ton of time along with reasearch and made with a great deal of thought..its better then excellent.id put joe calzahke in the list of honorable mention..yep posters will critize him a lot but the guy did many things at a high level..also not to be on your list but a honarable mention is rodrigo valdez..unfortunetly he was overshadowed and justifiably so by carlos monzon but non the less a fantastic fighter.

Unreal list.

I think Rocky Valdez, Cal, Lewis and Tyson should be somewhere mentioned. Before people rip me apart for Tyson: youngest HW champ, undisputed champ, repeat champion and a couple of HOFers (yes they were past it, but the same can be said for many). His accomplishments hold up on paper.

I think some accomplishments should take higher precedence. Specifically George Foreman & BHop. They are/were old as shit. Not sure how it was taken into account but what they accomplished at their age should trump similar accomplishments by younger fighters because it's so much harder (maybe sustained greatness/longevity could be a lesser criteria). Also, I'd like to mentioned that RJJ went up 70+ lbs in competition from where he started to get his HW belt.

Gumby wrote:

Unreal list.

I think Rocky Valdez, Cal, Lewis and Tyson should be somewhere mentioned. Before people rip me apart for Tyson: youngest HW champ, undisputed champ, repeat champion and a couple of HOFers (yes they were past it, but the same can be said for many). His accomplishments hold up on paper.

I think some accomplishments should take higher precedence. Specifically George Foreman & BHop. They are/were old as shit. Not sure how it was taken into account but what they accomplished at their age should trump similar accomplishments by younger fighters because it's so much harder (maybe sustained greatness/longevity could be a lesser criteria). Also, I'd like to mentioned that RJJ went up 70+ lbs in competition from where he started to get his HW belt.

I think an argument can be made for each of those guys. I considered Rodrigo, Calzagh and lennox, Tyson I just flubbed.

All those guys deserve a mention.

I also think a good argument is there on Foreman and BHOP as well. I didn't pujt age in there at all. Probably ouightta be in the criteria.