Most Important Part Of Legacy?

[The Old LefHook]

Legacy is whatever accomplishments a boxer manages to stuff into his bag over a career. Longevity and length of dominance are things often found in the bag. The number of trinkets collected is another. Successful comebacks. Climbing divisions is another.

1 Longevity
2 Trinkets
3 Undefeated Record
4 Dominance Over Opposition
5 Who You Beat And When
6 Never Knocked Out
7 High KO Percentage
8 Fan Adoration
9 Multi Division Success
10 Great Technician


Question 5 in the poll should read Who You Beat And When.

Is there a way to edit one's polls?

[BrometheusBob.]

#1 Who you fought and when
#2 Dominance over opponents

[daggum]

#1 who you like the most, then you can mold your list based on what that guy has done. for example if you like calzaghe you could say longevity even though he fought bums for ten years straight. if you like floyd you could say look at those big names on his resume while ignoring that they were all very past prime. if you like vitali you say he was never losing a fight and ignore that his resume is garbage day. etc...

[Anthony342]

Who you beat and when. Then longevity of dominance, either in one weight class or beating the best in several weight classes.

[soul_survivor]

Pretty much what the poll says.

Pacquiao beating Morales and JMM, just an example. Or Bhop beating Tarver and Pascal. Holyfield going over Tyson. That sorta stuff.

[lightsout_finit]

Who you beat and when.
It's says a lot about a fighter, when he will fight absolutely anyone...

[Eff Pandas]

For me its the caliber of guys you fought & how long you did it for.

For example one of the more impressive things in boxing that isn't THAT great or anything, but is great all the same to me is Carl Froch's run from Dec 2008 to May 2012 (undefeated Pascal, Taylor, undefeated Dirrell, Kessler, Abraham, Johnson, undefeated Ward & undefeated Bute). I don't think I've seen anyone who's had such a long run of high level fights, that he mostly won in this era. My opinion of Froch during that period is like 5x what my overall opinion of Froch.

[ShoulderRoll]

Who you fought and when.

If Deontay Wilder's career ended right now he'd have a trinket, an undefeated record, never knocked out, and a high KO percentage.

But it's all pretty meaningless in the end because he really hasn't fought anybody. There's not much historical significance to what he has done up to this point.

Golovkin is another guy who is in a pretty similar position.

[Mr.MojoRisin']

I think who you beat and when go hand in hand with dominance over opponent

[The Old LefHook]

Since everyone seems to agree on what legacy is, maybe we can agree who has the greatest legacy.

Who beat absolute monsters when they were still monsters, and did a bunch of that?

Holyfield beat Tyson who was as close to prime as Holy could get him. We all know Mike was not dead center prime for those fights. It was still one helluva good fighter Holy beat twice. He also beat Mercer when Mercer was pretty formidable, outboxed the reincarnated Foreman and took on Lewis when he himself was over the hill a ways. He managed to beat Bowe once in three classic fights. His fight roster reads like a hall of fame seating card. Let's not forget the rugged Dwight Braxton in top form.

All I am saying is that Holyfield must be a candidate here. There are certainly many others, but Holyfield is an archetypal example of a fighter willing to fight anyone. He beat enough of those fighters to be a serious candidate for all time best legacy.

Sugar Ray Robinson also has a magnificent legacy rich in prime fighters.

Like it or not, Manny Pacquiao knocked off a number of names near their primes, and has to be a serious candidate. He clubbed down such men as Margie Plaster Mitts, Cotto and Hatton, and beat variously weathered versions of many other greats.

For a work in progress, Ward already has a fine legacy to build on. He came out on top of a prime heap for the SMW tournament. If he manages to knock off Kovalev, he is going to become a permanent fixture on ATG lists. If Kovalev knocks him off, Kovalev may become that fixture.

If a single guy managed to KO Fury, Wilder and Joshua, he might have a pretty good legacy out of that. If Vlad came back to deat Fury and then the other two, his would be hailed as an all time great legacy, and rightfully so.

Guys like Roy Jones get away from the ring and realize they do not have a great legacy. They should have put out more when they were in their primes. Mayweather is feeling it now. He sees that fans and journalists do not rate him as highly as he rates himself, and it irks a man with such an ego. He feels the need to prove it to the world and posterity. Only Golovkin offers this kind of legacy, however. Floyd never went out of his way for the big challenges when he was prime, is anyone foolish to waste their time thinking he might do it now? He will go for the cosmetic rush and millions of dollars, he will rationalize the big challenge away one final time, go for huge money and the vanity relief of dominating boxing talk once again for a short while, rather than taking the only legacy monster out there. He did that his whole career. He will not go for the legacy fight. He will take the cosmetic fix of the limelight one last time.

Anyway, Holyfield, Robinson and Pacquiao are definitely in the race, it seems to me.