Excluding heavyweights, who is the best 1 (or 2) division champion?

[Fox McCloud]

All of the top names on the list of greatest fighters ever have generally been guys who have moved up a bunch or been heavyweights.

The Ring's 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years's top 5 is as follows:
1. Sugar Ray Robinson
2. Henry Armstrong
3. Muhammad Ali
4. Joe Louis
5. Roberto Duran

Robinson moved up countless times, Armstrong held 3 weight classes' titles at once, Duran was as beast at lightweight and ended up winning a SMW belt. Ali and Louis were obviously heavyweight only.

Who is the best Kostya Tszyu or Ricardo Lopez type of boxer in history?

[pesticid]

Most of us are too young to know man. Unless you go by Boxrec

[Dirt E Gomez]

Gotta' be Hagler. One of the best (if not the best) Middleweights of all time.

[Silencers]

Hagler and Monzon are considered to be some of the best fighters in history and they didn't have to move up.

[Scott9945]

Willie Pep. Check his record if you don't believe me.

[Fox McCloud]

Gotta' be Hagler. One of the best (if not the best) Middleweights of all time.

Hagler is a straight up BEAST!

I asked this question because it is an interesting one IMO.

GOAT status is compared by statistics such as # of world champions fought (one division fighters usually hold all the belts in the divison, and only so many champions from lower divisions can move up). Also, they can't compare how many belts they won or anything like that. A good one division champion should win 3 or 4 belts tops in his career. Win them and hang on to them is the motto. These fighters are responsible for their record (obviously), who they fight IN their given division (not retiring when someone good is on their way) and how good the fighters in their division are (which is beyond their control).

Ricardo Lopez destroyed the minimumweight division, but I have heard the division was pretty weak. Same with Bernard Hopkins in the middleweight division.

How about Jimmy Wilde? I heard his career was pretty prolific as a flyweight.

[Fox McCloud]

Willie Pep. Check his record if you don't believe me.

Good call. I thought I remembered him moving up...

[warp1432]

With Longevity comes a weak division.

Only one to have a great division with his reign was Ali and even he took 4 years off. If he had fought those 4 years, his resume might not have been as great imo.

Good call. I thought I remembered him moving up...

He fought at 130 a couple times, but when he was a title holder he was at 126.

[Silencers]

Lopez moved up towards the end of his career.

[Fox McCloud]

With Longevity comes a weak division.

Only one to have a great division with his reign was Ali and even he took 4 years off. If he had fought those 4 years, his resume might not have been as great imo.



He fought at 130 a couple times, but when he was a title holder he was at 126.

I find it kind of strange that 130 was the only weight class that has been around forever, even though it's an in-betweener weight class.

Lopez moved up towards the end of his career.

Yeah, that's why I made it one or two division champs, because something like that would count IMO. He really wasn't a division jumper.