who is the most charismatic boxer of all time ???

Night Train's a fine tune. Especially the James Brown version.

 

in that footage of sonny skipping, the record player is in the corner of the gym and the sound is crackly.......magic

 

I don't think h e was the m poo st charasmatic, but Barney Ross has sparked my imagination for years now. From the murder of his father, his epic fights, ties to Al Capone, being a war hero in the battle of Guadelcanel during WW2 and being severely injured to his subsequent morphine and gambling addictions in which he overcame, Ross is life is just an incredible story.

 

Dela Hoya

 

Agree, Floyd Patterson was a very charismatic fighter.

 

Max Baer was one for sure.

 

Maske.



Maske.

 

No big George?

 

:huh

 

Either Mohammed or Tex.

 

Different guys had the "it" factor ...

Sullivan
Dempsey
Ali
Tyson

Top four at heavyweight ...

In the last fifty years , non-heavyweight ...

Ray Leonard
Oscar De La Hoya
Floyd Mayweather

 

I think you can break it down between in the ring and out of the ring. Out of the ring, it would include Ali, Jack Johnson, Dempsey, and Louis, and if you go outside the US, then you're looking at Duran, and Pac who were and still are, icons in their countries.

Inside the ring, I would say Ali, Tyson, Dempsey, Duran. Pac, Mayweather, (Maybe Oscar for what he done for PPV's) Whitaker, and perhaps a couple of others.

If you wanted only one name and you were US eccentric, I would probably pick Ali. If I were world focused it would be close between Ali and Pac, and I'd probably pick still pick Ali.

 

I'm going to assume he's been mentioned but Georges Carpentier was indisputably charismatic.

 

It's not Dempsey. In those days, just about everything the public knew about you was filtered through the newspapers and newsreel films, and they were edited to play up favorable things and help build legends.

Could Dempsey have stood on his own merit in that arena and be genuinely charisnatic? Maybe, perhaps even probably, but we never got the chance to really find out. The papers told us what we were supposed to know.

Ali had no such filter to contend with, for better or worse. We got to see more of the real man.

 

Ali was edited and packaged through the medium of television.
And back in the 1960s and '70s plenty was edited out to play up favourable things of celebrities and build legends. We're not even talking about an awful lot of TV channels, and relatively little total air time.
Ali had his act prepared, and appeared mostly in pre-planned segments. His act was great, and he was the most charismatic, but it's far from being a picture of a real man.

It's only in the last few years, with the internet and youtube etc., that some of the newer boxers (and 'celebrities' in general, as well as non-celebs) are becoming exposed as real personalities, warts and all, ordinary people, not professionally edited for the convenience of TV and traditional media.