Armstrong Duran Whitaker Pacquiao

[klipsch speaker]

Who is the best weight scaler? a.k.a. Fighting the bigger boys?

[joseph5620]

Who is the best weight scaler? a.k.a. Fighting the bigger boys?

Armstrong owns this title.

[Wild Blue Yonda]

It has to be Armstrong. Pacquiao, for me, gets the nod over Duran, but both were great in that regard. Pacquiao is simply exceptional even to Duran, however.

I don't quite see how Whitaker is in this discussion. Great as he was (& he was brilliant), he was not known especially as a huge scaler of weights. Only fought across three divisions, with a cameo at a fourth. That's not in the class of the other fellas here.

[StarshipTrooper]

Armstrong owns this title.

Yeah, holding the Featherweight, Lightweight, and Welterweight titles simultaniously is always the deal sealer for me

Poet

[BennyST]

Pac has gone up about 35-40 pounds and is still doing amazingly well. Duran ended up scaling well over 50 pounds, from 118 to 175, though in general the caliber and size of the opposition was better and bigger than that faced by Pac and by the time he had gotten up well past his good weights he was fat, inconsistent and didn't train. Pac nicks it in the success regarding the weight divisions jumped, but falls well below in the opponents faced and how good he was in his prime compared to Duran and the weight jumped.

It also comes down to the weigh ins now. Pac has the huge advantage of having a day to rehydrate whereas guys like Duran and Armstrong had to fight at the weight they weighed in at, meaning if they were fighting today they could have gone down as far as Pac and up much higher considering the success they had at weights higher than Pac plus the surplus of titles available now.

However, all that aside, Armstrong has this down, and probably always will. Holding three 'real' titles in the eras of 1 per division will always beat out anyone holding an IBO, Silver title or even today's lineal title. Holding a title and jumping weights is now an absurdly common achievement and has become the norm and being a three weight titlist (an extraordinary accomplishment in the days of 'fight-day-weigh-ins- and 1 or 2 titles per division only done by the greatest of the greatest) is something rather normal because of pre-fight-day weigh ins and rehydration techniques etc and the utterly absurd surplus of titles in every division. Being a titlist in multiple divisions is the same as being a champion in one division used to be. Being the Undisputed champion today is now so uncommon as to mean much more in my opinion than division jumping. You don't have a choice who you fight if you want to become Undisputed, whereas weight jumping allows you to choose among the many 'champs'.

I don't know why Whitaker is in this, great as he is?

To me it comes down to Armstrong holding 3 titles simultaneously, in the era of one title per division, against greater competition than Pac. But there are more greater weight scalers to me than Pac apart from Armstrong. However, taking into account the success only, rather than individual fights and resumes (at which point Duran would be above Pac for this too) it's Armstrong, Pac, Duran then Whitaker.

[JAB5239]

Pac has gone up about 35-40 pounds and is still doing amazingly well. Duran ended up scaling well over 50 pounds, from 118 to 175, though in general the caliber and size of the opposition was better and bigger than that faced by Pac and by the time he had gotten up well past his good weights he was fat, inconsistent and didn't train. Pac nicks it in the success regarding the weight divisions jumped, but falls well below in the opponents faced and how good he was in his prime compared to Duran and the weight jumped.

It also comes down to the weigh ins now. Pac has the huge advantage of having a day to rehydrate whereas guys like Duran and Armstrong had to fight at the weight they weighed in at, meaning if they were fighting today they could have gone down as far as Pac and up much higher considering the success they had at weights higher than Pac plus the surplus of titles available now.

However, all that aside, Armstrong has this down, and probably always will. Holding three 'real' titles in the eras of 1 per division will always beat out anyone holding an IBO, Silver title or even today's lineal title. Holding a title and jumping weights is now an absurdly common achievement and has become the norm and being a three weight titlist (an extraordinary accomplishment in the days of 'fight-day-weigh-ins- and 1 or 2 titles per division only done by the greatest of the greatest) is something rather normal because of pre-fight-day weigh ins and rehydration techniques etc and the utterly absurd surplus of titles in every division. Being a titlist in multiple divisions is the same as being a champion in one division used to be. Being the Undisputed champion today is now so uncommon as to mean much more in my opinion than division jumping. You don't have a choice who you fight if you want to become Undisputed, whereas weight jumping allows you to choose among the many 'champs'.

I don't know why Whitaker is in this, great as he is?

To me it comes down to Armstrong holding 3 titles simultaneously, in the era of one title per division, against greater competition than Pac. But there are more greater weight scalers to me than Pac apart from Armstrong. However, taking into account the success only, rather than individual fights and resumes (at which point Duran would be above Pac for this too) it's Armstrong, Pac, Duran then Whitaker.

Great post Benny!

[gattiwarrior]

forget the best scaler how about these 4 in a round robin tournament

every fight would be amazing

[yeykax]

Armstrong fought anyone bigger stronger and within months.No catch weights or nothing!!

[Boxing Bob]

After Benny ST s post theres nothing left to post

[-JUGGERNAUT-]

Armstrong fought anyone bigger stronger and within months.No catch weights or nothing!!

Armstrong had catchweight fights too. This silly revisionist history needs to be stamped out.

1. Pacquiao
2. Duran
3. Armstrong
4. Whitaker