Your ATG top 25???

Good list
Good effort (unlike some who will just rank a fighter where ever it sounds good)


I can't get over this though:

24.) Floyd Mayweather
25.) Julio Caesar Chavez Sr.

 

The problem is, if I give you a list it would be a dishonest list. I know all the guys so I'm not a noob, but to claim I can accurately differentiate between some of those names would be a lie. So I could give you a list but it would be a list that looks good on the surface but is built on some assumption and also some ignorance. Hopefully others will contribute — I mean, there are some real experts here, right?

One point on this thread though: do you differentiate between greatest and best? If I were to come up with a list of the 25 best boxers, in which case virtually the only criteria would be imagining how they all fare H2H, then it would likely look a bit different to my list of the 25 greatest boxers.

There's no one on one sport in the world that's harder to judge the greats in than boxing, at least among the popular sports. In boxing, we're using a lot of guess work and judging based on hypothetical P4P match-ups and accomplishments relevant to a huge number of different weight-classes, where as in most other sports the field just plays the field in its entirety.

 

On that criteria, where would Roy Jones rank?

 

Quite high. I couldn't tell you exactly where unless I did boxing history the justice it deserves by learning it to a thorough degree, but quite high. Roy Jones Jr. tends to get underrated these days, or at least that's the general impression I get. His late career needlessly marred his greatness, but his resume does lag behind a lot of the other great fighters. On the second criteria, he's at the top or near the top and it's on the strength of how he would do H2H that he'd see a reasonably high spot on my list were I to make one. He certainly was a superstar and appeared superhuman, and he did spend considerable time as the best P4P boxer in the world.

 

Respect but no way in hell does Floyd deserve to be in the top 25 and with no spot for Hagler it's about wins and Hagler has had some incedible wins Floyd doesn't have wins that earn him a top 25 spot ..

 

I'd still be interested to hear on Louis-Ali and Whitaker-Mayweather Jr. even if just in a nutshell. Clearly you've put an awful lot of time into discerning why one has the edge over the other.

About SRL, I wouldn't be worried about the backlash. Place him where you feel he deserves to be placed. It's hardly an unreasonable placing anyway but I'm always interested in the views on SRL given how we perceive the results of his biggest fights, the brevity of his career, and his cut short prime.

He was a huge superstar in the sport though and was the best at one point, so by my criteria he'd hardly be undeserving of a top 25 spot. I'm just not so sure I'd have him that high. Where do you think he should really be placed, ignoring worry of an annoying backlash?

I haven't ever attempted it for boxing — because of the nebulous and fractured framework which the sport has operated in, which makes it extremely challenging to judge — but I'll give it a go later on, probably tomorrow, and post a list.

 

That is a tough one but consider this. Meldrick Taylor was beating Chavez. Manny thought JCC got a gift against Whittaker. Look at the guy like Frankie Randall who beat JCC. Hard to argue Mayweather wouldn't be favored.

 

Just a useful attempt that was collaboratively conducted on another website to determine P4P reigns. It seems relevant for this thread.