The Top 100 Pound for Pound All-Time Greats

I doubt that, personally.

What's your position Senya, are you saying that you think Jack won this fight straight up?

 

The Morning Call: "The referee gave the fight to McAuliffe which called forth a storm of disapproval. There was never seen such a demonstration against a referee's decision."

Richmond Dispatch: "It was [Griffo's] fight beyond doubt...unquestionably the most bare-faced decision that has ever been given in a boxing contest in this vicinity."

Jack McAuliffe after the fight: "I have no fault to find against the feeling of the sporting public against me today. I did not do my duty to them entering the ring as I did. I was in no condition to meet Griffo or anyone else."

 

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#82 Pascual Perez (84-7-1)

Pascual Perez is as brilliant a flyweight as has ever lived. The Argentine amassed nine defenses of the title in six years at the top, more than any other fly on this list aside from Miguel Canto (more of whom later). Sporting a delightful fifty-seven stoppage wins and a knockout percentage in the sixties he was a little man who could box or punch but who, at just 4’11, had to overcome huge physical disadvantages. Even in the 112 lb. division he would often give away big chunks of weight to his title opponents. Despite this, he went unbeaten for the best part of eight years, picking up a national title in just his sixth fight and the world title in just his twenty-fourth, going to Japan to outclass and outpoint national idol Yoshio Shirai who was taller by five and a half inches and heavier by four pounds. Shirai was a brilliant operator with the scalps of Dado Marino and Terry Allen hanging from his belt and was a trailblazer for Japanese boxing as well as much bigger—in a rematch Perez knocked him out and sent him into retirement.

As soon as Perez began to slip, the physical disadvantages he had to suffer made life impossible, as the excellent Pone Kingpetch proved by beating him back to back in 1960 to remove him from the title picture, but that didn’t stop the little man adding another twenty-eight wins before losing four of his last six darkened his record slightly.

An utterly brilliant and dominant flyweight at his best, his 51-0-1 run perpetrated against taller and heavier men over a period of just six years is perhaps the most celebrated in the history of his division. It is interesting to ponder how long he might have ruled weighing in as a modern-day minimum or light-flyweight. It seems a rather terrifying prospect.

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#81 Panama Al Brown (133-20-13)

An aspect of ranking fighters that i very difficult to get proper control of is the dreaded “head-to-head” equation. This is where the differences between the achievements and legacies of fighters become so hard to differentiate that you start to fall back on the oldest of fight adages, “who would win?” It is strange that it tends to be thought of as the grubby little cousin of “historical achievement” when ranking fighters on any all-time list. You don’t sit down in front of the television on Saturday night and handicap your boxers based upon what they’ve done in the sum total of their careers, just how good they are and maybe upon how they performed last time out. Panama Al Brown is a fighter whose high ranking rests in part upon his astonishing head-to-head abilities.

Brown was 5’11 and had a 76” reach. For the sake of comparison, Anselmo Moreno, who is rated at #1 by the Transnational Boxing Board in the current bantamweight division, is 5’6 with a reach of 70”. In an era of same-day weigh-ins, Brown was taller and rangier than current middleweight champion Sergio Martinez. He was physically capable of throwing, and landing, uppercuts without breaching his opponent’s jabbing range. The advantages he held over the field are almost unparalleled but he did not rest upon these physical laurels. He was technically gifted, capable of attacking on the front foot from suddenly from unseen angles, did a very nice line in a shucking defense and whilst he was not a huge puncher, his stringy elegance made him a dangerous hitter capable of one-punch knockouts with either hand.

Such were his skills and physicality that he was able to go unbeaten at his favored bantamweight for an astonishing and fight-filled eight years, from his questionable points loss to Belgian idol Henri Scillie in Paris in 1927 and 1935, when he lost to Spain’s Baltasar Sangchili (later avenged). Not a fighter shackled to any one country for fear of bad judging, Brown was the ultimate road warrior, boxing forty times on the European continent in these years, beating the best the world had to offer—perhaps the Panamanian’s persistent drinking and smoking went down better over here than it might have in the United States. He did box in America and visited Canada for some of his very best performances, including the two-minute knockout of the storied Emile Pladner, his jab clinic against the superb Pete Sanstol (then 76-2) and his utter domination of Eugene Huat (who holds a win over Newsboy Brown and tragically beat Pladner into a coma from which he would fortunately recover). He was unquestionably the best bantamweight in the world for the best part of ten years, should be favored to beat every bantam to have come before him and depending upon your own view on the evolution of boxing you might reasonably pick him over every bantam that came after him too.

Although he performed well at featherweight, he lacks the genuine pound-for-pound achievement to put him nearer the top of this list. His tendency to lose to the quill of his featherweight competition even in his prime years despite considerable physical advantages even those few pounds north, a factor. Were it based purely upon the head-to-head equation with his abilities at bantamweight the only factor, he would be considerably higher.

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01 – Sam Langford
02 – Harry Greb
03 – Sugar Ray Robinson
04 – Henry Armstrong
05 – Ezzard Charles
06 – Bob Fitzsimmons
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 – Jack Dillon
42 - Emile Griffith
43 –Alexis Arguello
44 – Ike Williams
45 – Jimmy Wilde
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46 – Julio Cesar Chavez
47 – Ruben Olivares
48 – Fighting Harada
49 – Carlos Ortiz
50 – Michael Spinks
51 – Young Corbett
52 – Thomas Hearns
53 - Floyd Mayweather
54 - Manny Pacquiao
55 – Evander Holyfield
56 – Freddie Steele
57 – Abe Attell
58 – Mike Gibbons
59 - Bernard Hopkins
60 - Ted Kid Lewis
61 - Luis Manuel Rodriguez
62 - Salvador Sanchez
63 - Wilfredo Gomez
64 - Vicente Saldivar
65 - Rocky Marciano
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66 - Lou Ambers
67 - Freddie Welsh
68 - Jim Driscoll
69 - Dick Tiger
70 - Harold Johnson
71 - Carmen Bassilio
72 - Manuel Ortiz
72 - Carlos Zarate
74 - Miguel Canto
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75 - Oscar De La Hoya
76 - Azumah Nelson
77 - Mike McCallum
78 - Lary Holmes
79 - Bob Foster
80 - Teddy Yarosz
81 - Panama Al Brown
82 - Pascual Perez
83 - Lloyd Marshall
84 – Jake LaMotta
85 - Juan Manuel Marquez
86 – Wilfred Benitez
87 – Nonpareil Jack Dempsey
88 – Erik Morales
89 – Marco Antonio Barrera
90 - Young Griffo
91 - Fritzie Zivic
92 - Joe Frazier
93 - Pete Herman
94 - Lennox Lewis
95 - Jack "Kid" Berg
96 - Philadelphia Jack O'Brien
97 - James Toney
98 - Nicolino Locche
99 - Jung Koo Chang
100-George Foreman

 

I had a sneaking feeling they were too low...working on the next batch disabused me of this notion, though you can always argue them a few spots either way (maybe Perez only one way...)

Yes.

What is your overall picture of the Gans-Griffo contests?

My knee-jerk reaction is to say Benn, which surprises me a little.

Say what now?