Bert Sugar's 100 Greatest Fighters List......Give Me Your Opinion!

[Bright-Eyes]

1. By the first trainer of Lewis (forgot his name) Say Tyson was like and animal and all over Lewis for the first day. He asked Lewis is he wanted to just go home because he was getting hurt. Lewis apparently denied and went back to spar the next couple of days and gave as good as he took. I can quote Lewis on saying to himself after the sessions that he "hoped he didn't meet tyson again when they turned pro because he was an animal"

They said that during the beyond the glory episode they did on Lewis a few years ago.They had claimed that Lewis had him "frustrated and under control" after a couple of days sparring.



Trainers name is Arnie Boehm

[SouthPawHitman]

I disagree with Berts list. Carlos Monzon at 55 is to low. Carmen at 57 is to low.

Emile Griffith at 29 is to high. Carlos beat him 2x.

Now im a big JCC Sr. fan, but 17 is a bit high. 20-25 is where I would put him.

I have always rated Gene Tunney very high. I think he is criminally underrated.

[rightsideup]

I disagree with Berts list. Carlos Monzon at 55 is to low. Carmen at 57 is to low.

Emile Griffith at 29 is to high. JCC Sr. Carlos beat him 2x.

Now im a big JCC Sr. fan, but 17 is a bit high. 20-25 is where I would put him.

I have always rated Gene Tunney very high. I think he is criminally underrated.

very good comments!!!

[KO'er]

Ali should be number one.

Beat the supposedly invincible Sonny Liston, who was considered by many the best HW ever before Ali/Clay beat him. He thoroughly outclassed Patterson, the former champ. He cleaned out the top 10 before he got banned from boxing.

He then came back, beat Foreman, Frazier two times. IMO he beat Kenny Norton 2 times, plus he beat the likes or Ron Lyle and Earnie Shavers who would have been big hitters in any other era. (plus just outside the very elite in this golden age of heavyweight boxing.)

[JAB5239]

Ali should be number one.

Beat the supposedly invincible Sonny Liston, who was considered by many the best HW ever before Ali/Clay beat him. He thoroughly outclassed Patterson, the former champ. He cleaned out the top 10 before he got banned from boxing.

He then came back, beat Foreman, Frazier two times. IMO he beat Kenny Norton 2 times, plus he beat the likes or Ron Lyle and Earnie Shavers who would have been big hitters in any other era. (plus just outside the very elite in this golden age of heavyweight boxing.)

Just out of curiosity, who ranked Liston the best heavyweight ever before Ali beat him? I've just never heard that before.

[Rspen46]

Bert Sugar knows his Boxing as well as anyone, but just like any other person, he has his own personal opinions that creep into his own rankings, as I am sure he places some personal favorites above others that he knows he should not do, but for whatever reason, he may not like another fighter, so he moves his favorites higher, it doesnt matter that he knows so much, he is still only human & his list of 100 can't 100% be taken at 100% because it's tainted to a certain degree, as I would my list based on my knowledge, I would put small handful of favorites above others that many would not agree with, but it could be, because I like them better than another fighter, that's only human. so I take Bert's list to a certain degree & use it with others & my own knowledge & research & come up with my own list, he really likes Aaron Pryor, I know from reading a lot about Bert & seeing him interviewed at Pryor fights, but as I've stated 100x in many other posts, put on a great show in his bouts, but he fought no one, he beat an aging Cervantes at the end of his career, his trainer Panama Lewis cheated Arguello, who was on his 4th move up in weight & nearing the end of his great career, so really who did Pryor beat, he passed on the JWW #1 contender in Saoul Mamby, he never fought anyone with real power, that's why they took him out of the LW division without ever having a single fight, & they took him an empty, weak JWW division, because the LW was loaded at the time, so Pryor does not deserve to be on the list, & I think Bert truly knows this, he is just partial to Pryor for his own reasons, that's how guys that don't deserve to be on a an All time great list make, no matter who is doing the list.

[Rspen46]

Patterson had a very fast 1 punch attack, but 2 handed speed, he does not deserve to be ranked #1
Ali was faster, probably Louis, Tyson, & some others, Corbett from what I've read was very fast for his time, J. Johnson, L. Holmes, H. Hide, G.Page, L. Donald, E. Charles.

Just to name a few.

[SouthPawHitman]

very good comments!!!

Haha Thanks!

[Ray Corso]

Theres number One...Sugar Ray Robinson...then the rest!!!!..........




..as to Lennox Sparrig with Mike, he did poorly the first day and was bullied around the ring and tentitive. He did comeback the next day and hold his own and then axctually tok control of the session. The session were not controlled much and were what we called "open sessions"!!!!
I think the the boys were 16 yrs old and just entering "open Class" amatuer status!!
I can tell you that Cus and Teddy didn't think meeting Lennox down the road would be easy!!!! In fact if I remember correctly Lennox didn't stay the time set aside for working with Tyson and everyone was OK with it!!!!
Seems like it wasn't that long ago but I guess it was, I had just finished watching over Mike & Teddy for Cus and that may have been my last visit to the old man in the Catskills at the farm! I liked Cus very much!! Ray.

[Bodyshot3]

Good list from a top guy but some weird middleweight rankings and leave outs in there....

......Monzon and Hagler rated some distance beneath Cerdan and Lamotta, not sure about those calls at all.

No Randy Turpin either...surely you must break into the 100 if you beat the best fighter of all time for the title? Seems Nino Benvenuti gets hard done by as well...always seems to get under-rated for some reason.