My Top 20 All Time

[SBleeder]

I think that's fair.

Albeit, Pep's win over Saddler is the best win on either resume IMO but I think Pep's resume is a little overrated.

I often consider swapping him someone. Ali could easily be that someone although he likely wouldn't be.

Does Ali have the best HW resume of all time in your book?

[JAB5239]

I also have Duran and not Gans.

But for the most part yes, great minds think alike, or so they say

I wouldn't argue to much flip flopping Duran and Gans. At any time I rate them both and Leonard number 1 at lightweight.

And thank you for the compliment, the feeling is mutual.

[IronDanHamza]

Does Ali have the best HW resume of all time in your book?

Yes, I would say so.

[Humean]

Why do you think this?

1: Lack of quality video prevents the sort of comparisons I think are necessary to give the sort of confident judgments people make about the great fighters of this era (1885-1930) compared to subsequent eras.

2: Too many more intangibles compared to subsequent era's, corruption and such like. Perhaps the 40s and 50s were worse for corruption because of the influence of the mob but there was certainly great issues about the period of roughly 1885-1930 on this too. You also had fights with ridiculous number of rounds. There was a lot of newspaper decisions because of the legal status of boxing. For me this all just adds a lot of uncertainly in judging fighters relative to subsequent eras.

3: The level of competition always seems low to me, the sport is largely confined to the locales of the US and Britain, the populations were significantly lower then than they are now. Ceteris paribus the greater the population the greater the quality of fighters around, basically every other sport has improved with time and a significant factor in that improvement is simply population growth. Boxing became more global since then as well as population growth in US and Britain.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

I dont see how you could have hopkins ranked ahead of guys like floyd, manny, holyfield, hearns, lennox, jack johnson,, not that those guys are top 20,,
plus you have zarate, gomez, so many fighters over the past 100 years,,,

Im a huge fan of hopkins but tough for him to crack the top 20 ALL TIME

[LacedUp]

You look at all of these fighters listed, you actually believe that Chavez belongs with those? You genuinely believe Chavez has a Top 20 calibur resume?

What year is this? Did I wake up in the 1980's?

JCC has a very underrestimated resume on here it seems to me. I definitely feel his resume is top 20 worthy, combined with his activity and dominance.

His win over Martinez who had knocked out Castanon and Navarette at the age of 18 or something was a sublime win to me. He was also #1 at the time. Then you can add an undefeated Cortes, Aguilar, a slightly past his prime, but nevertheless ATG Camacho, Alli the #1 contender who had some great wins on his resume too.

I also think his win over Haugen in front of what I believe to still be the biggest crowd for a boxing match ever, Meldrick Taylor AND Roger Mayweather!

But his best win of all was probably the upset of the time, against Rosario.

Ultimately, I think he warrants a place amongst the top 20.

Maybe his big wins were a dime a dozen, but if you want to fight 5-10 times a year, there's got to be some less known fighters there.

[IronDanHamza]

I dont see how you could have hopkins ranked ahead of guys like floyd, manny, holyfield, hearns, lennox, jack johnson,, not that those guys are top 20,,
plus you have zarate, gomez, so many fighters over the past 100 years,,,

Im a huge fan of hopkins but tough for him to crack the top 20 ALL TIME

He doesn't crack the Top 20 that's why.

Nor close.

[InSaiyan]

It's ok to be a Hopkins fan and not think he is top 20. I'm a huge Hopkins fan. People need to really have a word with themselves about what being an accomplished top 20 fighter really means, in the grand scheme.....

[LacedUp]

He doesn't crack the Top 20 that's why.

Nor close.

Do you think Floyd Mayweather is top 30?

[Humean]

I agree that Julio Cesar Chavez could be in the top 20 (not top 10 though) although it is certainly questionable. I'd find it very hard to rank Chavez without having Whitaker near him in the rankings much like how I feel about Mayweather and Pacquiao. Chavez would probably be between about 15-30 for me with Whitaker either a place or two higher or lower than him.