The Top 100 Pound for Pound All-Time Greats

How do you think he'll do with Fury?

 

Gents the top 16 is locked up. It's my p4p list and that's how i have it. Obviously not everyon is going to agree and for those who have Duran in the top 10 or Duran as a lock for the top ten I can only say that Duran is literally one place outside of the top 10. That's 1% in the grouping we are looking at. 10 is an important number, so people fetishise it, but the difference between 10 and 11 is almost nothing. Literally.

I favour Louis because I consider him both the greatest champion and the greatest puncher this sport has ever produced. For those two reasons more than any other I am absolutely satisfied with his placement.

Walker could definitely be higher. He could be #9 for me. That is what the teiring system was. You could make that argument for all these guys (10-16) depending upon who and what you favour. Unfortunately someone has to be #16, and that's Walker. Numeration is problematic for people because they are specified designators, so nobody objects to Louis and Walker being in the same tier because it's non-specific, and everyone accepts they are very close together, but when they see six names between them they become uncomfortable. I understand, but that's the way it has to be.

 

01 – Sam Langford
02 – Harry Greb
03 – Sugar Ray Robinson
04 – Henry Armstrong
05 – Bob Fitzsimmons
06 – Ezzard Charles
07 – Benny Leonard
08 – Muhammad Ali
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09 – Willie Pep
10 – Joe Louis
11 – Roberto Duran
12 – Joe Gans
13 – Packey McFarland
14 – Archie Moore
15 – Sugar Ray Leonard
16 – Mickey Walker
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17 – Barney Ross
18 – Terry McGovern
19 – Tony Canzoneri
20 – Pernell Whitaker
21 – Charley Burley
22 – Holman Williams
23 – Jimmy McLarnin
24 – Sandy Saddler
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25 - George Dixon
26 - Barbados Joe Walcott
27 - Stanley Ketchel
28 - Billy Conn
29 - Kid Gavilan
30 -Roy Jones
31- Gene Tunney
32 - Tommy Gibbons
33 - Tommy Loughran
34 – Jack Britton
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35 – Eder Jofre
36 – Jose Napoles
37 – Carlos Monzon
38 – Jimmy Bivins
39 – Marvin Hagler
40 – Tommy Ryan
41 – Emile Griffith
42 –Alexis Arguello
43 – Julio Cesar Chavez
44 – Ruben Olivares
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45 – Jimmy Wilde
46 – Ike Williams
47 – Fighting Harada
48 – Carlos Ortiz
49 – Abe Attell
50 – Michael Spinks
51 – Young Corbett
52 – Thomas Hearns
53 – Evander Holyfield
54 – Freddie Steele
55 – Mike Gibbons
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Bleuch.

Changes - I flipped Jofre and Britton and I flipped Arguello and Chavez.

 

you sound like a crazy person.

I feel like one. Doing that last tier made me feel sick.

 

Tommy Ryan. Yes, he belongs. He is arguably one of the most dominant fighters on this list and he could be argued even higher - in fact luf did exactly that earlier in this thread, a champion of a post if you care to dig it out. He didn't quite manage a who's who? but he beat an incredible array of excellent fighters and was p4p #1, 2, 3 or 4 for most of his enormously long prime in what was an absolutely obscene era in terms of depth. If I were to argue anything I'd argue that he's a little too low by eye - he's tied to Barbados Joe Walcott, and was regarded by many of the two as the better of the two when both were active but languishes fifteen odd places below him here. But I can't cram him further up what is a bursting list of brilliance.

Hearns - i absolutely sympathise, I don't like his placement at all. Thirteen places below Hagler is far too far by eye. But look at the names that lie in between him and Marvin. It is no longer a case of listing his credentials - every fighter above and below him so far will have an enormous list of fantastic accomplishments attached to their names. It is now a question of explaining why he should be above specific fighters.

Should he above Attell, who managed 18 or 20 something defences of his undisputed featherweight title and beat George Dixon and Johnny Kilbane (both on the list) as well as huge host of other worthies? Should he be above Spinks, clearly one of the greatest three or four LHW's and perhaps the very best h2h who also did the impossible in adding the HW title? Should he be above Young Corbett based upon his superior p4p achievment despite his inferior W resume?

You can probably make these arguments, but none of them are clean cut. I'll hear arguments and agree that by eye it is not pleasing, but like Tony Thompson, i go with my gut.

 

I've answered my own question a little bit and dropped Attell a tier- seems my redress needed to be redressed.

01 – Sam Langford
02 – Harry Greb
03 – Sugar Ray Robinson
04 – Henry Armstrong
05 – Bob Fitzsimmons
06 – Ezzard Charles
07 – Benny Leonard
08 – Muhammad Ali
---------------------------------------
09 – Willie Pep
10 – Joe Louis
11 – Roberto Duran
12 – Joe Gans
13 – Packey McFarland
14 – Archie Moore
15 – Sugar Ray Leonard
16 – Mickey Walker
-------------------------------------------
17 – Barney Ross
18 – Terry McGovern
19 – Tony Canzoneri
20 – Pernell Whitaker
21 – Charley Burley
22 – Holman Williams
23 – Jimmy McLarnin
24 – Sandy Saddler
-------------------------------
25 - George Dixon
26 - Barbados Joe Walcott
27 - Stanley Ketchel
28 - Billy Conn
29 - Kid Gavilan
30 -Roy Jones
31- Gene Tunney
32 - Tommy Gibbons
33 - Tommy Loughran
34 – Jack Britton
-----------------------------------------
35 – Eder Jofre
36 – Jose Napoles
37 – Carlos Monzon
38 – Jimmy Bivins
39 – Marvin Hagler
40 – Tommy Ryan
41 – Emile Griffith
42 –Alexis Arguello
43 – Julio Cesar Chavez
44 – Ruben Olivares
----------------------------
45 – Jimmy Wilde
46 – Ike Williams
47 – Fighting Harada
48 – Carlos Ortiz
49 – Michael Spinks
50 – Young Corbett
51 – Thomas Hearns
52 – Evander Holyfield
53 – Freddie Steele
54 – Abe Attell
55 – Mike Gibbons
-----------------------------------


So Hearns gets a tiny bump indeed (As does everyone else below Attell but above Mike).

 

I'm also toying with flipping Wilde up two spots but i'll hold off for the moment.