Lightweight GOAT, just a 2 horse race?

[DeeMoney]

Is the discussion for Greatest All Time Lightweight just a two fighter race: Leonard or Duran? Or can you make a legitimate argument for another fighter- Pea, Gans, Ortiz, someone else?

Are Benny Leonard and Roberto Duran really that much better as lightweights than all others?

[Ivich]

Is the discussion for Greatest All Time Lightweight just a two fighter race: Leonard or Duran? Or can you make a legitimate argument for another fighter- Pea, Gans, Ortiz, someone else?

Are Benny Leonard and Roberto Duran really that much better as lightweights than all others?

Ike Williams makes my top 4.

[QueensburyRules]

Is the discussion for Greatest All Time Lightweight just a two fighter race: Leonard or Duran? Or can you make a legitimate argument for another fighter- Pea, Gans, Ortiz, someone else?

Are Benny Leonard and Roberto Duran really that much better as lightweights than all others?

- - Joe Gans easily up there, not the others you cite. Lights may be the most packed division in history next to the middles and welts.

[Silence]

Duran, Leonard and Gans are top 3.

Duran > Leonard > Gans

[IronDanHamza]

Ortiz has an argument IMO.

[JAB5239]

Gans, Leonard and Duran are interchangeable for number one. Whitaker, Williams, Ortiz and Canzoneri make up the next tier. Amber's, Chavez, Ross and Armstrong and Mayweather the next. No particular order.

[The D3vil]

I think Whittaker has an argument, so does Joe Gans, and Armstrong

Y'all forget about Ike Williams destructive ass, too.

[QueensburyRules]

I think Whittaker has an argument, so does Joe Gans, and Armstrong

Y'all forget about Ike Williams destructive ass, too.

- - Tell us again about all the LH ABC title defenses PeaShooter racked up.

[Willie Pep 229]

I think Whittaker has an argument, so does Joe Gans, and Armstrong

Y'all forget about Ike Williams destructive ass, too.

Gans and Armstrong agree with you? I suspect they never even heard of Wittaker.

On a serious note Ivch did mention Ike Williams above. It is hard to place him, too many claimed he was forced to tank fights, he claimed he was forced to tank fights, but I don't trust old fighters who claim they lost because of "pressure." Not that it didn't happen but because it is too common an excuse, especially among Black fighters.

The period between when Ross moved up to WW, and Ortiz and Laguna had not yet appeared I would argue Williams was the best out there.

Often it took a WW to beat him.

[GhostofDempsey]

It's hard to overlook Beau Jack in this discussion. Solid wins at LW that include Armstrong, Montgomery, Williams, Zivic, Angott, Zurita, Davis, Jenkins, and Janiro. If we are ranking greatest lightweights by what they accomplished at 135, he ranks right up there in the top 5.