Division by division: The greatest fighters of all time (Ring)

*The following article appears in the December 2021 issue of The Ring Magazine.* A PANEL OF HISTORY-MINDED EDITORS, SCRIBES AND PUNDITS CONTRIBUTED THEIR TOP FIVE FIGHTERS IN ALL 17 OF THE MODERN WEIGHT CLASSES TO DETERMINE THE BEST OF THE BEST IN EACH DIVISION Boxing as we know it has been around since the Queensberry rules came into place in 1867. However, it wasn’t until 1903 that all eight of the original weight classes – flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight – were firmly established. With the advent of “junior” and “super” weight classes over the decades, the number gradually expanded from eight to 17 – possibly 18 if the WBC’s fledgling bridgerweight gets off the ground – and while that’s way too many in the opinion of boxing purists, we have also witnessed a plethora of outstanding fighters occupy each division. As a teenager, this writer was captivated by the cover feature for the May 1994 issue – entitled “Division-by-Division: The Greatest Fighters of All-Time,” penned by then-Editor-In-Chief Steve Farhood – and, as an adult, I wondered just how things would look in each weight class over a quarter of a century later. To single out and rank the best fighters of all time in every division is a very difficult and subjective task. The Ring enlisted the services of various historians and writers, including Steve Farhood, current Editor-In-Chief Doug Fischer, Managing Editor Tom Gray, Lee Groves, Stephen Edwards, Cliff Rold, Bob Yalen and myself. Anson Wainwright reached out to each of the panel and asked them for their top five in each division. Once I had everyone’s compilations, I assigned five points for the No. 1 selections, four points for No. 2, three points for No. 3 and so on, then totaled up everyone’s scores. ................................. Heavyweight 1. Muhammad Ali 2. Joe Luis 3. Larry Holmes 4. Lennox Lewis 5. Jack Johnson A Notch Below: George Foreman, Jack Dempsey, Rocky Marciano, Evander Holyfield Cruiserweight 1. Evander Holyfield 2. Oleksandr Usyk 3. Carlos De Leon 4. David Haye 5. Juan Carlos Gomez A Notch Below: Johnny Nelson, James Toney, Vassiliy Jirov, Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Jean-Marc Mormeck Light Heavyweight 1. Ezzard Charles 2. Archie Moore 3. Bob Foster 4. Michael Spinks 5. Gene Tunney A Notch Below: Roy Jones Jr., Sam Langford, Tommy Loughran Super Middleweight 1. Joe Calzaghe 2. Roy Jones Jr 3. Andre Ward 4. James Toney 5. Carl Froch A Notch Below: Mikkel Kessler, Sven Ottke, Nigel Benn, Steve Collins, Lucian Bute, Canelo Alvarez Middleweight 1. Sugar Ray Robinson 2. Carlos Monzon 3. Harry Greb 4. Marvin Hagler 5. Bernard Hopkins A Notch Below: Jake LaMotta, Stanley Ketchel Jnr Middleweight 1. Thomas Hearns 2. Mike MaCcallum 3. Terry Norris 4. Winky Wright 5. Nino Benvenuti A Notch Below: Emile Griffith, Felix Trinidad, Ayub Kalule, Koichi Wajima, Sandro Mazzinghi, Julian Jackson Welterweight 1. Sugar Ray Robinson 2. Sugar Ray Leonard 3. Henry Armstrong 4. Thomas Hearns 5. Jose Napoles A Notch Below: Floyd Mayweather Jr., Kid Gavilan, Emile Griffith, Felix Trinidad, Manny Pacquiao Jnr Welterweight 1. Julio Cesar Chavez 2. Aaryon Pryor 3. Kostya Tszyu 4. Barney Ross 5. Antonio Cervantes A Notch Below: Nicolino Locche, Jack Kid Berg, Oscar De La Hoya Lightweight 1. Roberto Duran 2. Benny Leonard 3. Joe Gans 4. Pernell Whitaker 5. Ike Williams A Notch Below: Tony Canzoneri, Henry Armstrong, Carlos Ortiz Jnr Lightweight 1. Alexis Arguello 2. Floyd Mayweather 3. Julio Cesar Chaves 4. Azumah Nelson 5. Manny Pacquiao A Notch Below: Flash Elorde, Kid Chocolate, Brian Mitchell Featherweight 1. Willie Pep 2. Salvador Sanchez 3. Henry Armstrong 4. Sandy Saddler 5. Abe Attell A Notch Below: Eusebio Pedroza, Vicente Saldivar, George Dixon, Naseem Hamed Jnr Featherweight 1. Wilfredo Gomez 2. Marco Antonio Barrera 3. Erik Morales 4. Guillermo Rigondeaux 5. Daniel Zaragoza A Notch below: Wilfredo Vasquez, Vuyani Bungu, Israel Vasquez, Jeff Fenech, Nonito Donaire, Manny Pacquiao Bantamweight 1. Eder Jofre 2. Ruben Olivares 3. Carlos Zarate 4. Manuel Ortiz 5. Panama Al Brown A Notch Below: Terry McGovern, Orlando Canizales, Veeraphol Sahaprom, Naoya Inoue Jnr Batamweight 1. Khaosai Galaxy 2. Jiro Watanabe 3. Johnny Tapia 4. Gilberto Roman 5. Sung Kil Moon A Notch Below: Vic Darchinyan, Juan Francisco Estrada, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai Flyweight 1. Jimmy Wilde 2. Miguel Canto 3. Pascual Perez 4. Pancho Villa 5. Frankie Genaro A Notch Below: Fidel LaBarba, Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Benny Lynch, Mark Johnson, Roman Gonzalez Jnr Flyweight 1. Michael Carbajal 2. Humberto Gonzalez 3. Jung Koo Chang 4. Hilario Zapata 5. Roman Gonzalez A Notch Below: Myung Woo Yuh, Yoko Gushiken, Ricardo Lopez Strawweight 1. Ricardo Lopez 2. Ivan Calderon 3. Roman Gonzalez 4. Rosendo Alvarez 5. Chana Porpaoin A Notch Below: Ratanapol Sor Vorapin, Wanheng Menayothin, Zolani Petelo

Comments (20)

Heavyweight rankings are laughable. Joe Louis is clearly the greatest heavyweight of all time. Ali was barely the best heavyweight of his era. If he’s number one, Foreman and Frazier have to be 2 and 3. Lennox Lewis in the top 5 is a joke. why wouldn’t Lewis be in the top 5....he was the best of his era and beat every fighter he stepped in the ring with and also won the heavyweight world title 3 times...just like Ali. Beat them all and it’s good to see Lewis finally get the recognition on how high up in the all time list he should be.....before you make up excuses Tyson avoided Lewis and paid him step aside money , bowe through his belt in the dustbin.

4y ago

The_Big_Dunn

Thanks mate. Whenever I come across stuff like this I try post it up as it tends to start discussion, split opinions etc. I appreciate the effort. No matter where my favorite guys are it definitely leads to the good solid boxing debates.

4y ago

Chrismart

Always like it when Chrismart posts these kinds of threads. Very informative. Thanks mate. Whenever I come across stuff like this I try post it up as it tends to start discussion, split opinions etc.

4y ago

dan_cov

Not to mention the division then was 190lbs they were more like big LHWs. A lot of Usyks competition was roughly 6'3 natural HWs cutting down to make 200lbs. A fighter like Gassiev I have no doubt would walk down a 186lb Carlos De Leon and absolutely pulverise him.

4y ago

dan_cov

are there really arugments Usyk is above Holyfield at cruiser? Holyfield best wins were De Leon (never beat anyone of note and lost multiple times to some pretty terrible opposition in his prime) & Qawi whose best wins and performances were at LHW. Usyk beat undefeated Briedis & an undefeated Gassiev who are much better and more accomplished CWs and then you have a past prime Huck, an undefeated Hunter, Mchunu & an undefeated Glowacki. Its not even because Usyk is hot right now he simply has better wins, a lot more depth to his resume (at CW), did it all on Road and the more accomplished of the two. Imo and its just my opinion I feel Usyk is a clear cut number 1 CW of all-time. I think Holyfield is likely being kept as high as he is based on him being undisputed as for me others certainly equal if not surpass him based on resumes.

4y ago

dan_cov

You can’t forget James Toney being mentioned at Cruiserweight at all which is just a joke really. Same with Jirov who I have to assume is there purely to try and make a case for Toney despite him never beating anybody. Jirov unquestionably a good fighter and one who was better than his resume might suggest (speculation though) but he shouldn't be there based on the eye-test, he never beat anyone. He is despite his pedigree largely just known for that one fight vs Toney. Neither belong anywhere near this list.

4y ago

MoneyKasha

That CW list just doesn't even make sense. If you have Juan Carlos Gomez so high then surely they are looking at quantity over quality and title defenses so in that case shouldn't Johnny Nelson be ranked above someone like Haye? That CW list was not based on resumes, accomplishments or absolutely anything other than strong American bias in attempt to raise Holyfield who frankly doesn't need it because worst case he is #2 ever at the weight. If you want to sit and argue Holyfield is the #1 CW I'll strongly disagree but respect your opinion but how anyone can sit and pretend Qawi and Carlos De Leon are that high is just comical. You would be hard pressed to put either even in the honourable mentions they have simply been elevated to boost up Holyfield. are there really arugments Usyk is above Holyfield at cruiser?

4y ago

IronDanHamza

That CW list just doesn't even make sense. If you have Juan Carlos Gomez so high then surely they are looking at quantity over quality and title defenses so in that case shouldn't Johnny Nelson be ranked above someone like Haye? That CW list was not based on resumes, accomplishments or absolutely anything other than strong American bias in attempt to raise Holyfield who frankly doesn't need it because worst case he is #2 ever at the weight. If you want to sit and argue Holyfield is the #1 CW I'll strongly disagree but respect your opinion but how anyone can sit and pretend Qawi and Carlos De Leon are that high is just comical. You would be hard pressed to put either even in the honourable mentions they have simply been elevated to boost up Holyfield. You can’t forget James Toney being mentioned at Cruiserweight at all which is just a joke really.

4y ago

dan_cov

4y ago

dan_cov

I guess they are subjective but usually I find they're somewhat respectable or have a middle ground but these are absolutely awful. Its refreshing seeing Holmes so high up but on what possible criteria could anybody have Jack Johnson as the 5th greatest HW? That CW list is shocking. I wouldn't know where to begin how is Breidis & Gassiev not at least on the honourable mentions? If not top 5. Breidis is a 3 time world champion with much better wins than almost all that list combined! and his only loss was a razor thin fight vs Usyk (The real CW goat) then you have Gassiev who beat Lebedev (A fine world champion), an undefeated Dorticos in a FOTY & destroyed Diablo back-to-back-to-back. Are we going to act like a shot Mormeck was a better fighter than Lebedev? I legitimately have an impossible time even putting Haye as the best British CW of all-time. His only standout win is a way past prime Mormeck who gave him all he could handle and then some and Enzo Maccrinelli who got ironed out everytime he fought someone remotely decent. Qawi also gets way too much love based a great losing effort to a very raw Holyfield. His resume and even record at CW is actually shocking, he was a much better LHW than he was CW. If one wanted to argue he was an underrated LHW I'd be inclined to agree but he gets way too much love as a CW its almost sickening.

4y ago

LeOoze

Heavyweight rankings are laughable. Joe Louis is clearly the greatest heavyweight of all time. Ali was barely the best heavyweight of his era. If he’s number one, Foreman and Frazier have to be 2 and 3. Lennox Lewis in the top 5 is a joke. Foreman and Frazier are routinely listed as top 10 heavyweights though. Ali was clearly the best heavyweight, I think. Fought better competition than Joe.

4y ago

davef

- -U a misty eyed 3rd grader then? Ring operates as an echo chamber, recently, nay drastically getting their last 2 big fights of boxing experts' picks spectacularly WRONG! TUE 51-0 gots nice show pony stats in his bought and paid for hometown commish, refs, and judges, but by Ring published P4P lists that often include Junior, Manny fought, whupped, and KOed more Ring P4Pers in history, ranked P4P the longest in consecutive years, and doing it in more weight classes and noone even close...NOONE!!! End of the day, bog standard top 100 lists ain't any different from Beauty Queen contests when in fact on any day I can go down to my grocery store and see a girl far more naturally desirable and beautiful without even trying as opposed with those striving Beauty Queens and their bought off judges. Study up-----Crack family Floydy ducked the first match, both the date and venue that he reserved in advance as first choice in the negotiations. Manny made the date but could not book the venue that Floydy reserved in advance. What grade was U in then? OK, U can be excused...next!!! Here we go another boxing fan whose life Floyd ruined why are you still hanging around your god Pacquiao got retired and beat by another B class fighter can't believe you are sat there putting Manny above Floyd when he got beat by him and a school teacher from Australian and a couple of asian cab drivers smd they fought and pac lost haha all that smack talk and floyd made him his sparring partner I think your brain is still in the 3rd grade get mannys dik out of your mouth fs

4y ago

Boxing1013

Very US/Western centric list by a bunch of US/Western writers. No surprise there.

4y ago

QueensburyRules

Lineal Welterweight Champion (2006-07; 2015), IBF (2006 ), WBC (2006-07, 2011-15), WBA (2014-15), WBO (2015) Win over an ATG in pac and absolutely dominated everyone else he faced there except 2 punches by SSM and a rough house 1st fight vs Maidana. At 37 years old, Mayweather simultaneously held multiple world titles undisputed in two different weight classes a feat only 3 or 4 men have achieved in boxing history all while past his prime going 9-0 at WW beating 8 former or at the time current champions So yes.. yes I do - -U a misty eyed 3rd grader then? Ring operates as an echo chamber, recently, nay drastically getting their last 2 big fights of boxing experts' picks spectacularly WRONG! TUE 51-0 gots nice show pony stats in his bought and paid for hometown commish, refs, and judges, but by Ring published P4P lists that often include Junior, Manny fought, whupped, and KOed more Ring P4Pers in history, ranked P4P the longest in consecutive years, and doing it in more weight classes and noone even close...NOONE!!! End of the day, bog standard top 100 lists ain't any different from Beauty Queen contests when in fact on any day I can go down to my grocery store and see a girl far more naturally desirable and beautiful without even trying as opposed with those striving Beauty Queens and their bought off judges. Study up-----Crack family Floydy ducked the first match, both the date and venue that he reserved in advance as first choice in the negotiations. Manny made the date but could not book the venue that Floydy reserved in advance. What grade was U in then? OK, U can be excused...next!!!

4y ago

The_Big_Dunn

Always like it when Chrismart posts these kinds of threads. Very informative.

4y ago

Nash_out

Rubbish list. Biased towards the olden day fighters as always. Julio Cesar Chavez Sr is, was, and always will be a B-level fighter. I could have got to 90-fighting the cans he fought. Came massively unstuck at world level, and his draw, with PW, was one of the worst scores ever. The HW list is so bad. Larry Holmes! AKA, a poor man's Kevin the Kingpin Johnson at 3! yeah, right. Nash out.

4y ago

just_the_facts

There’s a few things I disagree with (Hearns #4 at ww) but overall pretty solid lists.

4y ago

buddyr

What does Floyd beating cotto at JM have to do with WW?

4y ago

davef

they were old boxers period. you dont get special im even older points. mosley beating marg does not mean floyd beating mosley is a better win than floyd beating prime marg. do you see how floyd always ends up fighting the old guy or the one win wonder guy and never the prime guy when hes dominating? why couldnt floyd fight cotto after he beat mosley? or marg after he beat cotto? oh old mosley got an upset win now hes ready to fight the best when the best happens to be an old man coming off an upset win lol. just do that with any current fighter thats on top now. pretend some old guy like kesller comes in and knocks off canelo. are you saying beating kessler would be better than beating prime canelo? nonsensical. also how do you think kessler would fare going forward in future fights? prob not very well given the probabilities and we saw how mosley looked after that marg fight...horrible! how can you ignore that? its not like he had anything left against floyd, pac, mora, canelo etc...if he did then you could say hey good win he gave them a good fight but he didnt have anything left against anyone! he was donezo! cotto had been brutally beat down twice and never beat anyone good above 147. im not sure how beating cotto at 154 can be considered a harder challenge? once again this seems like floyd is getting special "im small" or special "im old" points and you arent focusing on how good the fighter he is facing actually is. cotto at 154 did nothing. just look at his resume and you will see that. cotto at 147 did a hell of a lot and beating him there is clearly a much better win since his resume was great there and he was prime there. at 154 he was past his best, has no resume, and never looked as good. the guy lost to austin trout...harder challenge? wat. You going to deny Cotto clearly was stronger than Floyd at 154? Why if Cotto was so much less of a fighter at higher weights did he hold the damn Middleweight title lol only losing it to Canelo who has gone on to dominate? Wasn't Cotto with Top Rank at the time also? and as soon as he wasnt floyd fought him you seem to be forgetting the boxing politics at that time and just pushing the blame on Mayweather as you are convinced he out right ducked without looking at the landscape What was Floyd supposed to do in regards to Margarito once Shane bust him up? It pure conjecture to say he avoided him when Floyd was signed to Top Rank and dealing with Bob Arum at the time we will never know the truth. How can you say Shane looked Horrible when it was a great win vs the boogie man of 147 and his next fight and after was Floyd then even further down he line he went the distance with both Pac and Canelo who both didnt even do a much better job of it and yet floyd gets criticized for beating a version coming off a good win and younger? Right and Old boxers being beaten by an even older boxer is a problem? Lets be real the way you were talking in your original post you were creating the narrative Floyd was beating up on old men while he was young and prime now you are flipping it off as yea but day old doh ..suppose that's Floyds fault the top 10 was stacked with them? Where are these super young guys he avoided name them? go look at the rankings for WW from 2008 nearly every damn fighter in the top 10 was either Floyd's age or younger than him wtf doesn't matter Floyd should be 5th on that list he was dominate even out of his prime moving up to that division and he has PACs scalp on his record who is going to be an all time great in history a win that counts more to his legacy than beating Margarito the mummy

4y ago

daggum

I stand corrected you are right 130* Floyd missed who tho? Williams and Margarito? He beat the guy who stopped Margarito in his previous fight right after anyway and Cotto he faced at 154 a much harder challenge than at WW you got to remember this was not Floyd's peak for half of that welterweight run and although not officially he pitched basically shut outs in many of them Should be noted only older guys he faced were Marquez and Mosely the rest were younger than Floyd they were old boxers period. you dont get special im even older points. mosley beating marg does not mean floyd beating mosley is a better win than floyd beating prime marg. do you see how floyd always ends up fighting the old guy or the one win wonder guy and never the prime guy when hes dominating? why couldnt floyd fight cotto after he beat mosley? or marg after he beat cotto? oh old mosley got an upset win now hes ready to fight the best when the best happens to be an old man coming off an upset win lol. just do that with any current fighter thats on top now. pretend some old guy like kesller comes in and knocks off canelo. are you saying beating kessler would be better than beating prime canelo? nonsensical. also how do you think kessler would fare going forward in future fights? prob not very well given the probabilities and we saw how mosley looked after that marg fight...horrible! how can you ignore that? its not like he had anything left against floyd, pac, mora, canelo etc...if he did then you could say hey good win he gave them a good fight but he didnt have anything left against anyone! he was donezo! cotto had been brutally beat down twice and never beat anyone good above 147(crippled martinez included). im not sure how beating cotto at 154 can be considered a harder challenge? once again this seems like floyd is getting special "im small" or special "im old" points and you arent focusing on how good the fighter he is facing actually is. cotto at 154 did nothing. just look at his resume and you will see that. no top wins at all. cotto at 147 did a hell of a lot and beating him there is clearly a much better win since his resume was great there and he was prime there. floyd had the chance to fight him there...and he didnt. at 154 he was past his best, has no resume, and never looked as good. the guy lost to austin trout...harder challenge? wat. beat #7 ranked foreman, beat unranked mayorga, beat unranked marg, lost to trout, lost to floyd. thats not a good run at all. at 147 he beat a bunch of top guys: mosley, judah, quintana, clottey, eric crumble. he was clearly a much bigger challenge but like i said floyd knows when to pick them off. you seem genuinely convinced of the things you say so im not trying to attack you. i just dont know how you can not see it.

4y ago