Best Bare Knuckle-19th Century boxers?

[HaglerSteelChin]

Outside of Sullivan I wouldn't necessarily call any of them bareknuckle boxers. Even Sullivan only had a few non-gloved bouts and preferred the use of gloves.

Jem Mace
Daniel Mendoza
Tom Cribb

were among the best bareknuckle boxers.

Since i had put only two of the three, i might as well put Mendoza to the british list and have the holy trinity of british bareknuckle guys in there.

[BigStereotype]

How would you know? I mean, without any of the film to analyze, you're just going to be going off what people say about them. And, in my experience, going off the word of sports writers - and fans in general - is a damned mistake.

Now, I'm not trying to call you guys out or insult you or anything. I honestly wonder how you could judge these bare knuckle boxers.

[HaglerSteelChin]

How would you know? I mean, without any of the film to analyze, you're just going to be going off what people say about them. And, in my experience, going off the word of sports writers - and fans in general - is a damned mistake.

Now, I'm not trying to call you guys out or insult you or anything. I honestly wonder how you could judge these bare knuckle boxers.

Some people dont rank many bare knuckle guys and possibly only the most recent. I think influence alone may merit their consideration. Also if a fighter is known or regarded as the best of their era than he also gets mention. Little footage of Harry greb is available. Mostly sparring and trainning footage is only out there but we know the guys he beat and seen them. Yet Greb is pretty much in all top 10 lists as we all know he beat 13 hall of famers and fought with a blind eye for the latter portion of his career.

It's a personal choice. Some people won't include a fighter unless they have seen several of their fights. But i also think good judgment must be used to compare eras. For example, Rod laver is highly regarded in Tennis for winning the Grand Slam in that sport but he likely can't compete with the modern player who is much bigger and stronger. It's the same to a degree about boxing. Sure some fighters could fight in any era but alot of them wouldn't compete in modern fighting. A small HW like Marciano likely wouldnt look like he could fight modern HW's as big as the Klitchko's but it dosent take away with what they accomplished.

[BigStereotype]

See, but at least there's footage out there of a Greb. And I know that most modern athletes would stomp older fighters. It's just superior nutrition, training and technical skill. You can see that because you can see them on film. But a Jem Mace bareknuckle boxer you can't see. You can see what he accomplished because of records, but I still don't think that that's a good enough measuring stick to accurately judge a fighter. Think about it. Is Floyd Mayweather the greatest fighter of the generation? Based on his record he is, but I certainly don't think so. But he beat De La Hoya, Marquez, Hatton, Castillo, etc. And they beat Whitaker, Barrera, Tszyu, all them. Now, people can speculate all they want, but they won't ever know.