Fans Vote On Best Fighter of The Past 25 Years

Over the past few weeks i've been polling boxing fans and journalists on who they believe the best fighter of the past 25 years has been. The votes have now been counted and from the thousands of votes received, we have a definitive top 10. I have to admit that the final tally has somewhat surprised me. I expected it to come down to Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao with my personal vote going to the Filipino icon. However, it was a pleasant surprise to see the fighters from the 90's get the recognition they deserve. Several of the greats from that era did very well. The top 10 as voted by the fans is as follows... 1. Roy Jones Jr. 2. Manny Pacquiao 3. Floyd Mayweather Jr. 4. Joe Calzaghe 5. Mike Tyson 6. Pernell Whitaker 7. Julio Cesar Chavez 8. Lennox Lewis 9. Bernard Hopkins 10. Evander Holyfield Roy Jones, voted our best fighter of the past 25 years. Jones in his prime was viewed by most as an unstoppable force who possessed lighting speed that could not be rivaled by anyone in the sport. Jones was a powerful fighter who could pretty much hurt an opponent at will. However, often times he would fight in his safety-first style and cruise to decision wins. The fight I remember most from Roy's career (apart from the shocking ending in the second Tarver fight) is his fight with Virgil Hill where he stopped the former champion with a body shot in the 4th round. The sound that punch made when it landed was like a shotgun going off. Like all great fighters Roy had his critics. While Roy had many fans, a lot of people viewed him as a reluctant champion who often did not face the opponents that they wanted to see him get in there with. Whether you liked him or not, there's no doubting that is Roy Jones is a personified all-time great and a sure fire Hall of Famer. Obviously a lot of boxing purists will disagree with the list and it wouldn't be in line with my own top 10 but there's a saying in boxing and it goes "the fans are the real judges". Over the past few weeks - the fans have spoken. http://www.boxingasylum.com/showthread.php?t=50648#.USWeq6V9A3k

Comments (20)

Is this pre-prison Tyson or post-prison Tyson? I dont know, I never voted him

13y ago

Russian_Crushin

Tyson above Holyfield :lol1:

13y ago

IronDanHamza

Terrible list. Truly, terrible.

13y ago

hugh_grant

How can Floyd be above Holyfield, Lewis, Pernell?

13y ago

DonairesRevenge

Where was it taken?From twitter was the majority of voters being American.

13y ago

revs1227

actually not a bad list roy pac floyd b hop calzaghe

13y ago

ROSS_CALIFORNIA

You'll be wrong then.. Where was it taken?

13y ago

PBP

The names included on the list aren't that bad for a fan poll. The order is kind of off but opinions are like *******s.

13y ago

deanrw

Daggum will be very pleased that Calzaghe made the list. :D

13y ago

DonairesRevenge

Top three are the truth!!!! Cant argue much with it either

13y ago

54ever

Top three are the truth!!!!

13y ago

The list has got some of the names I would expect to be up there but the ranking isn't as I'd have it. My own list if anyone cares is: 1. Julio Cesar Chavez 2. Roy Jones Jr. 3. Manny Pacquiao 4. Pernell Whitaker 5. Bernard Hopkins 6. Lennox Lewis 7. Floyd Mayweather 8. Marco Antonio Barrera 9. Evander Holyfield 10. Juan Manuel Marquez Honorable mentions: DLH, Tyson, Wlad, Vitali, Tzyu, Calzaghe, Eubank and Lopez who were all on the verge of the top 10. Not what I would put exactly, but WAY better then the one posted. WAY better I'd replace gayweather with Oscar.

13y ago

DonairesRevenge

This poll must have taken place in the UK.You'll be wrong then..

13y ago

ROSS_CALIFORNIA

co-sign wtf how is calzaghe better than chavez, hopkins, lennox lewis? He's not, we both know that. This poll must have taken place in the UK.

13y ago

Dr_Rumack

Calzaghe beat Roy Jones so that's one mistake right away.

13y ago

djtmal

pernell "sweatpea" whitaker is numero uno over the last 25 years in my book...2-10 you can mull the pros and cons involving roy, floyd, manny, lennox, holy, etc.

13y ago

New_England

joe calzaghe is way too low.

13y ago

bojangles1987

Oh my glob, that list is so bad. Horrendously so.

13y ago

BoxingFollower

The only thing that screams NO on that list is Joe Calzaghe, im sorry.

13y ago

DonairesRevenge

Someone should dup this poll on here so we can find which forum is over ran with the most idiots. I think boxingasylum will take the cake on this one.99% of the votes came from twitter, not a forum. I purposely stayed away from big sites like BS.com and ESB because so many people have agendas on the sites.

13y ago