Better legacy-wise to dominate one weight class or to win belts in several?

Depends on who your opponents are but moving up in weight can often prove you can deal with a longer reach or take the harder punches at the higher weight, so in that way the edge could sometimes be with the fighter moves up and proves more by dealing with these problems, like Ward v Kov, talk about low blows all you want he proved more than any super middle ever did by dealing with Kov`s longer more powerful jab and in the first fight coming back after taking a powerful light heavy punch, R.Jones proved a very good light heavy when he moved up from super middle and so did Calzaghe but neither of them had to come from a fully fledged power shot like that from a light heavy, Joe took a good shot from Hopkins but it was nowhere near as powerful as the Kov knockdown blow and Jones was blown away by Tarver and Johnson so he couldn`t of taken a shot like that from Kov, so it depends on who you move up and fight I feel.

 

Yeah it depends who your opponents are, if it's a stacked division it might be better than moving up.

But that's extremely rare nowadays, so for the modern boxer I'd definitely go with moving up

 

Who are all the greats that dominated one weight class? (HW non grata )

 

Marvin Hagler until the Leonard fight. Bob Foster for a long time at LH. Ray Robinson at middle because he avenged all his most famous losses. Ward beat all the best fighters at super middle.

 

Yeah , thats what i thought. You can count on one hand the amount of greats who stayed in one weight class their whole career.
bty , Ray was a welter who secured a legacy at MW. He even fought for the LHW titles , so i think you can exclude him.

 

Carlos Monzon middleweight
PIPINO CUEVAS welterweight
Abe Attell featherweight
EUSEBIO PEDROZA featherweight
Antonio Cervantes jrweltete
yoko gushiken ltfly
JIRO WATANABE JR BANTAM
WILLY PEP featherweight

 

Generally speaking, long reigning, dominant same weight champs have resumes that are a bit weaker i.e. Joe Louis, Wlad Klitschko, Bernard Hopkins, joe Calzaghe, Roy Jones (@175), GGG etc. Even Hagler is criticized for his most notable wins coming against smaller fighter moving up. Dominant champs receive credit for their longevity, the stability they bring to a division, their discipline and usually being undisputed (Jones and Andre Ward are exceptions).
Weight jumpers have shinier resumes with more eye catching names -often against fellow HOFers- but there are often some big misses and they’re seldom undisputed. Mayweather is a prime example.
Also, factoring in that there are 13 weight classes with 5 belts (wbc, ibf, wba, wbo, ring) multiple titles in multiple classes can be pretty watery. Ward was a good/great fighter but he was never undisputed at 168 or 175.

 

Dominating a weight class for the simple reason that you are negatively impeding an entire division’s worth of fighters’ progress/achievement. Nobody “eats” unless the Alpha approves.

 

Well, when there were eight weight classes with just one champion, winning two more belts in different weight classes wasn't easy, 3 or very rare.

Now there are 17 weight classes with what can be viewed as four major world title belts. And the BS on the scales, they are not fighting at the weight class in the ring.

Today cleaning out a division, becoming Ring Magazine Champion and making a lot of title defenses to me is more impressive.

 

Dominating one weight class for ages is better than simply moving around weight classes and "winning belts".

I don't think "moving up" to a higher division is automatically a greater feat than champions who MAKE WEIGHT year after year.

I do give boxers who actually face heavier opponents a lot of credit though. For example, Holyfield, Tyson, Armstrong, Robinson, Dempsey gave up loads of weight at times.

But if they put on a load of weight, they've made themselves bigger, so all should be equal. If some hog fat guy weighs in at 200 but wants credit for being "a welterweight", I say **** him, the fat ****.

 

Weight jumping is generally better.

Sometimes it isn’t. Gatti beat Dorin for a 140 belt when Castillo and Corrales were at 135. I would’ve been more impressed if Cotto reigned at 147 instead of perfectly timing his 154 and 160 belt grabs. It depends on the circumstances.