Pound-for-pound winning streaks

Took a lot of effort, this! So I hope you all enjoy.

Firstly, a disclaimer - I'm just stating the facts. Whether certain fighters deserve to be in the International Boxing Hall of Fame or not or whether certain wins or losses were subjective or not, or if victims were old and pathetic at the time of listing, that's up to your judgement. I also made zero effort to list contenders (Willie Pep beat a **** load of contenders despite not facing many top end greats). Ordering is subject to my personal opinion and is not intended to be definitive, nor are the facts presented intended to be shown to correlate with or give reason to why fighters are placed where they are. 'My' list is for illustration purposes only

One more disclaimer - tried to be as accurate as I possibly could, but please allow the addition or omission of one or two units and put it down to human error, although there is a chance I actually got it spot on. All references from Boxrec and IBHOF.

I tried to apply 'prime years' as best I could. So here we go:

My top ten pound-for-pound and their best exploits:

#1 - Harry Greb

Streak: 171-3-7

Record against Hall of Famers within streak: 27-2-1

Mike Gibbons 1-1
Tommy Gibbons 2-1
Jack Dillon 2-0
Battling Levinsky 6-0
Billy Miske 2-0
Jeff Smith 6-0-1
Leo Houck 3-0
Kid Norfolk 1-0
Gene Tunney 1-0
Tommy Loughran 3-0

Notes: losses and draws seemingly fair. Record measured from George Chip loss to Tunney loss before which blindness had already crept in.

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#2 - Henry Armstrong

Streak: 68-2-1

Record against Hall of Famers within streak: 9-1

Baby Arizmendi 3-0
Benny Bass 1-0
Chalky Wright 1-0
Barney Ross 1-0
Lou Ambers 1-1
Pedro Montanez 1-0
Lew Jenkins 1-0

Notes: one loss controversial (low blows points deductions), one loss disqualification, draw controversial (against heavier boxer).

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#3 - Ray Robinson

Streak: 125-2-1-1

Record against Hall of Famers within streak: 17-3

Fritzie Zivic 2-0
Sammy Angott 3-0
Jake LaMotta 5-1
Henry Armstrong 1-0
Kid Gavilan 2-0
Bobo Olson 2-0
Randy Turpin 1-1
Rocky Graziano 1-0

Notes: both losses convincing to genuine middleweights, controversial no contest.

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#4 - Benny Leonard

Streak: 80-2-1

Record against Hall of Famers within streak: 15-2-1

Ted Kid Lewis 0-0-1
Jack Britton 2-1
Johnny Dundee 4-0
Freddie Welsh 1-0
Johnny Kilbane 1-0
Lew Tendler 2-0
Rocky Kansas 4-0
Willie Ritchie 1-1

Notes: one loss disqualification, one loss four rounder (avenged by knockout).

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#5 - Sam Langford

Streak: 81-4-5

Record against Hall of Famers within streak: 14-1-5

Joe Jeanette 5-0-3
Dixie Kid 2-0
Stanley Ketchel 1-0
Sam McVey 4-1-2
Philadelphia Jack O' Brien 1-0
Harry Wills 1-0-1

Notes: most non representative and difficult streak to measure dependent on myriad factors including alleged carrying of fighters and massive weight disparities.

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#6 - Ezzard Charles

Streak: 39-1

Record against Hall of Famers within streak: 13-0

Archie Moore 3-0
Lloyd Marshall 2-0
Joey Maxim 2-0
Jersey Joe Walcott 2-0
Jimmy Bivins 3-0
Joe Louis 1-0

Notes: Charles won two fights in 1944 after losing badly in 1943 but streak measured from when he next fought in 1946. Loss was controversial against heavyweight.

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#7 - Willie Pep

Streak: 153-2-1

Record against Hall of Famers within streak: 6-2

Chalky Wright 4-0
Sammy Angott 0-1
Manuel Ortiz 1-0
Sandy Saddler 1-1

Notes: both losses convincing. Streak includes regaining of featherweight title and stops before third Saddler fight. Devastating plane crash mid-streak.

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#8 - Bob Fitzsimmons

Streak: 49-3-1-1

Record against Hall of Famers within streak: 5-3

Nonpareil Jack Dempsey 1-0
Joe Choynski 1-0
Tom Sharkey 1-1
Jim Corbett 1-0
Jim Jeffries 0-2
Philadelphia Jack O' Brien 1-0

Notes: one loss disqualification, severely outweighed in other two. Opponents' records painfully incomplete.

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#9 - Roberto Duran

Streak: 72-1

Record against Hall of Famers within streak: 3-0

Ken Buchanan 1-0
Ray Leonard 1-0
Carlos Palomino 1-0

Notes: loss convincing. I do believe Duran had peaked and was declining after beating Leonard, therefore streak stops there. De Jesus not in Hall of Fame.

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#10 - Archie Moore

Streak: 54-2-1

Record against Hall of Famers within streak: 10-1

Jimmy Bivins 2-0
Harold Johnson 4-1
Joey Maxim 3-0
Bobo Olson 1-0

Notes: one loss disqualification, other was close. Stopped at LKO9 Marciano, after which an already old (by boxing standards) Moore was in certain decline.

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The whole point of this thread was really just to highlight the best years of commonly discussed boxers aside from their sometimes patchy records.

Thanks!

 

Yeah but let's face it, you'd wear Ketchel's hundred year old pants all over your head if you could get them.

 

I have to correct you (if you meant my ratings were based on these streaks I listed); it's not my criteria (perhaps my disclaimer wasn't clear enough). Just a thread to highlight some things. But yeah, McGovern was a beast. Not sure where to rate him but it would be in the top thirty.

 

What's that, 1900?

 

You'd wear a pair of homo erectus pants.

Anyway what do you think of the above? Leonard's is mightily impressive, huh? Moore also had a stronger post-Charles prime than many will remember. 54-2-1 up until Marciano! He was at least thirty eight then.

 

Come on mate! I had to use some kind of official (as near as there was) cut-off point otherwise I'd have all kinds of boxers floating about. I suppose I could have used 'contenders ranked one to three' but then I wanted people to see the quality in the opposition; to me, Hall of Fame status generally indicates that the fighter in question did something special (mostly it is consistent except for such inclusions as Willard and Johansson while omitting De Jesus and Joyce). Of course, someone like Joe Calzaghe would come out looking great on a list like this, but as I said above, that's up to the reader to discern whether that is justifiable or not.

Still, aside from the Hall of Famers; the raw numbers on Langford look great don't they?

By the way, I'm not sure if you meant this or not: my ratings aren't based on what's in this thread (well they are but only to a limited extent - Willie Pep wouldn't be up there, but I know he dominated many, many featherweight contenders and also few good lightweights). This seems to be confusing people and it's my fault. I shouldn't have listed them in 'my' order. It was all intended to be for illustrative purposes and not a ranking basis.

Thanks :good

 

What's crazy is when you realise much of Greb's best stuff came later in his career and outside of the streak I measured. As he gradually faded, Greb beat Mickey Walker, Maxie Rosenbloom, Jimmy Slattery and Tiger Flowers (all Hall of Famers again).

His record is ridiculous

Clearly the greatest for me.