Dominance in Years

I have actually never seen fighters ranked in this way before. And i think it might give us one very subjective way to rank fighters on a pound for pound basis. I am sure i will miss a few on the way through so feel free to add anyone i have missed. I am looking for fighters that were considered the best fighter in the world in the weight division that they were actually fighting.

1. Floyd Mayweather (1998-present) -Feather, Welter, MIddle 15 years
2. Bob Fitzsimmons (1891 to 1905)Middle, LH and heavy - 14 years
3. Manny Pacquaio (1998 to 2011) Fly, light, welter, bantam, feather
4. Muhammad Ali (1964-1978) Heavy - 14 years
5. Ray Robinson (1946-1958) Welter, Middle - 12 years
6. Joe Louis (1947-1949) - Heavy 12 Years
7. Pong Wonjongkam (2001-2012) - 11 years
7. roy Jones Jr 1993-2004) - 11 years
9. Tommy Ryan (1894-1904) - Welter, Middle -10 years
9. Archie Moore (1952-1962) Light heavy - 10 years

11. Jimmy Wilde (1914-1923) - Fly - 9 years
12.Willie Pep (1942-1950) - Feather - 8 years

13Carlos Monzon (1970-1977) - Middle - 7 years
13Marvin Hagler (1980-1987) - Middle - 7 years
13Sot Chitalda (1984-1991) - Fly - 7 years
13Jack Dempsey (1884-1901) - Middle - 7 years
13Tony Zale (1941-1948) - Middle - 7 years
13Jack Johnson (1908-1915) Heavy - 7 years
13John L Sullivan (1885-1902) - Heavy - 7 years
20 Benny Leonard (1917-1923) - 6 years
20Jimmy Barry (1893-1899) - 6 years
20 James Jeffries (1899-1905) - 6 years
20 Lennox Lewis (1998-2004) - 6 years
20 bob Foster (1968-1974) - 6 years
20 Gene Tunney (1922-1928) -L heavy, Heavy 6 years
20 Panama al Brown (1929-1935) - Bantam - 6 years
20 Pacaual Perez (1954-1960) - Fly - 6 years
20 Michael Spinks Heavy (1981-1987)


I have gone pretty much straight off CBZ with these years of dominance, so there is room for a lot of discussion and some obvious glaring errors and ommissions, which i am sure the ESB faithful can help fix up. Some of the mordern records in particular when weights and govenring bodies were common place, as well as the Moore Charles situation and the colour line do bear further investigation but, still even now there are some very interesting results

 

I think you are right, bit of a typo sort of. Hopkins is an interesting one that could have almost snuck in their but his loss to Roy Jones Jr really means that he was only considered the second best middleweight of his era, which is why i left him out.

 

Yeah, i definitely missed him. 1972 to 1980 sounds right, at lightweight and Welterweight. 8 years. is that agreed.

 

they were at different weights, werent they? I havent had a chance to look through and consider. Floyds reign and Pacs reighns surprised me in their length, though with modern fighters you have so many different belts and weights it is hard for them to be as dominant as older fightres.

Pernell probably would have that 6 year period. When i get time, i will look into it a bit harder.

There is the Frazier issue, who he eventually defeated and proved dominance (arguably) but there is no other fighter from that 3 years period really who you could say was a better fighter than Ali, is there (at heavyweight of course).

I think you mean Bob Fitzsimmons. When James Jeffries knocked out bob Fitzsimmons, Bob was a light heavyweight and he promptly won the light heavy title soon after losing to jeffries to continue his reign as the best light heavy of his time. (he was no longer the best heavy). Fitz is interesting. In about 1914 he went to court and got an acknoweldgment that he was still New Yorks recognised World Middleweight champion! and he won the title by beating a guy who had been middleweight champion for 6 years. A guy, whose career and age started around about the same time as Fitz' if you take that dominance as extending for the length of Jack Dempseys reign (For this time, Fitz was pretty much the top dog in his own part of the world) then there is an argument of longevity that is clearly unsurpassed. I didnt do that but it is interesting.

This is a serious question. Who split the reigns at weight division just because their division got to tough. Nearly everyone went up in weight or down in weight to increase competition and challengers, not the other way around.

I think you can. He was the best heavyweight in the world. Others might have been beat him from the time, but noone knows. If you have already proved you are the best then until you are beaten you must remain the best. The onus is on someone else to build an unarguable case (arguably like wills and Langford or orginally Johnson did). No one in Holmes era did this, and it is unlikely that any can be seen in his class. I think he was universally considered the best even if a couple of guys might have been considered a chance to beat him. None of them actually did.

 

I could be sympathetic to this type of reasoning. But if he wasnt teh best, who was? Were there any standouts during this time?

I definitely agree with your point about top 3 contender and differenttimes. In fact i dare say it is worse when you consider the additional weight divisions as well. You used to be able to do the same thing in 1 fight, that it takes modern greats 10 fights to do. I suppose the flipside is that it might be hard for someone like Greb to prove just how good he was if he was only allowed to fight every now and then.

 

It really surprised me that Benny Leonard was only there for 6 years when i looked at his record. But i guess he really stacked quantity and quality in those years, like virtually none before. Even if you lift him up to 7 years, he doesnt seem to make the top 10. It just shows to go how many really great champions their have been over the years.

And i think it is also goes to show just how great Joe Louis was in a pound for pound sense. Not only was his dominance of his division longer than everyone else, but i dare say that of the long dominant champions, when you look back at his fights, he is the one who was furtherest away from being beaten. Even prime Robinson has some controversial split decisions. The closest Joe Louis came to a loss, once he hit his prime is probably a fight where he knocked his opponent out (Billy Conn).