By Tom Donelson
Do you want to irritate a few boxing pundits and boxing purists? Just mention pound-for-pound best. Lets be honest, the emphasis on pound-for-poundis hype or as one boxing columnist declared, "Fantasy football with a protective cup." However, there is a historical aspect to pound-for-pound.
Throughout boxing history, there have been many match ups between boxers of different weights classes. Bob Fitzsimmons captured the heavyweight championship from Gentlemen Jim Corbett, but Fitzsimmons was essentially a Middleweight fighting in the heavyweight division. He would garner a light heavyweight champion at the age of 40 after losing the heavyweight title!
Middleweight champion Stanley Ketchel fought Jack Johnson in 1910 (and the fight did not end well for Ketchel, who was knocked out himself, after knocking the Heavyweight champion down.) Middleweight great Mickey Walker fared better against former Heavyweight champion Jack Sharkey as he battled the Boston Heavyweight to a draw.
Many champions would fight non-title bouts at higher weights against worthy opponents for sizable purses and build interest in future bouts.
Of course, many Heavyweights in the early part of the 20th century weighed less than 200 pounds. As late as 1956, Floyd Patterson weighed only 182 pounds when he won the heavyweight title. So weight differential between heavyweights and lower divisions were not as pronounced as today. Pound for Pound does show something about a fighter.
We all know that boxing matches are determined greatly by conflicting styles. The great fighters found a way to win against all styles. Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis beat all styles but there was no doubt that they had trouble with certain styles. Ali had three close fights with Ken Norton, but he did manage to win two of them- barely. Joe Louis fought close fights against cuties Joe Walcott and Billy Conn but he won all four fights against these warriors. Boxing historians are going to argue that Louis should have lost his first fight with Walcott and they would not be wrong. Louis did, however, come back to knock out Conn twice and Walcott in their rematch.
Ali had an easier time with George Foreman than he did with either Frazier or Norton, but neither Norton or Frazier could stand up to Foreman power. So style does matter in a fight. Another aspect in ranking a fighter's greatness is how they did in multiple divisions. Some fighters may be terrific in one division but their power or speed doesn't translate in higher divisions. Or great fighters may adopt and fight differently as they go up in weight. A boxer who was a knock out artist in a lower division becomes a slick boxer in a higher division.
Oscar De La Hoya is a good example of a fighter whose power did not translate to the higher divisions. In the lower divisions, he was devastating puncher with a powerful left hook but as he moved up, he found that his power lost their impact and often boxed his way to victories.
Sugar Ray Leonard showed power in stopping Tommy Hearns as a welterweight but against the tough Marvelous Marvin Hagler, he depended upon speed and his elusiveness to prevail. He was forced to go toe-to-toe against Hearns to win, but his boxing skills saved him against Hagler.
Then there are times that pound-for-pound proves less informative and more hype. For many years, Bernard Hopkins was on every pound-for-pound list, but he fought most of his career as a Middleweight and many of his notable wins were against fighters who were moving up in weight to fight him. Only until he defeated Antonio Tarver in his last fight, did Hopkins show that he could beat a quality heavier fighter. And that fight cemented Hopkins' greatness as pound-for-pound pugilistic.
Another flaw of the pound-for-pound is that many fighters move up in weight before truly cleaning out the division. Floyd Mayweather didn't fight either Joel Casamayor or Arcelino Freitas when he was still fighting in junior lightweight division. This is not to say that he wouldn't have beaten either fighter, but Mayweather has not often fought the best fighters in the various divisions that he participated in.
Bottom line is that there is a lot of hype concerning the pound-for-pound debate, but there is some historical basis for looking at the aspect of pound-for-pound. I will add that IBRO, boxing leading historical society, has even asked its members to vote for the best pound-for-pound. So maybe, the pound-for-pound debate is something more than interesting curiosity.