when making this list i never considered guys who won against top tier guys first whilst they were in or around there primes from what i know i would say Ezzard Charles Harry Greb ali armstrong ray leonard ray robinson duran Tony Canzoneri mickey walker barney ross honorable metions; ketchell, longford, pac, dlh, archie moore, barerra, morales, salvador sanchez, olivares, gomez ive probably missed a top 5 lock. i will probably change some of this list
Barrera's name sticks out like a sore thumb. It's pretty good by contemporary standards, but outside of Morales and Hamed there isn't a lot to shout about.
One glaring ommission : Benny Leonard beat Johnny Kilbane, Freddie Welsh, Johnny Dundee, Lew Tendler, Willie Ritchie, Charley White, Rocky Kansas, Jack Britton, Joe Welling, Leo Johnson, Ever Hammer,Soldier Bartfield and held the LW title for about 7 years retiring because he dominated all the great lightweight contenders...Best lightweight resume EVER !.
You'd have to think the following guys are locks for it: Greb Charles Robinson I.Williams B. Leonard Langford Moore Then you have probably another 15 or so candidates that are up there like: Armstrong Canzoneri Gavilan H. Williams Burley Britton Jack B.J. Walcott Loughran Walker McLarnin Gans Attell J.Dundee Angott Rodriguez (giving him the Griffith fights. Griffith himself is a candidate too...)
Taking on a mission impossible like that will only bring you ridicule. There are no definite answers for such scenarios. But they are great discussion / argument starters.
Greb, Robinson, Langford, Charles, and Walker would probably be my top 5 (not necessarily in that order).
