Obviously this is subjective but how many examples are there of the top 2 best all-time fighters in any weight division (strawweight all the way to heavyweight) facing each other? I can think of maybe a couple of possible examples but interested to hear other people's thoughts.
Ezzard Charles vs Archie Moore Gene Tunney vs Harry Greb These two are the first that came to my mind. A wildcard is Bob Fitzsimmons vs Jack Dempsey, as Jack was probably the best P4P fighter ever until Fitzsimmons.
Ok, I hadn't thought of that. I mean, I thought of Charles-Moore (the 2 best light-heavyweights ever) and I also thought of Greb-Tunney (arguably the two best light-heavyweights until Charles and Moore) but Dempsey-Fitzsimmons is an interesting thought. Again, was thinking the two best of all-time rather than the two best up to that point in history but I like that idea too.
Could make the case that James Toney and Roy Jones are two best H2H SMWs, I'm grasping at straws but I can't think of any ones that haven't already been said It's really very rare
Robinson / Gavilan was the first I thought. Obviously Moore/Charles and Pep/Saddler are good shouts. Roman/Watanabe at superfly. Maybe Chang/Zapata at lightfly but that's highly debatable and not set in stone.
Robinson-Gavilan has a potential argument. Robinson is most people's number 1 and Gavilan has a claim to the number 2 spot, although I don't personally have him that high. Roman-Watanabe is a legit shout too.
Bob Fitzsimmons vs James J Jeffries is a decent chance as well. I don t think that Ali vs Foreman is completely crazy. What about Henry Armstrong v Sugar Ray Robinson? If you didnt rate John L Sullivan very highly, Peter Jackson v Jim Corbett was a definite chance. There has actually been a few more than i ever thought possible.
Would Joe Louis vs Ezzard charles qualify with the Greatest Heavyweight vs Greatest Light heavyweight champion. Using the same theory, some people would have considered Mike Tyson vs Michael Spinks as well. Hagler vs Duran is similar. There is quite a few that would qualify under this method depending on your opinion of who is the greatest.
Just another angle to take this, but when Bob Fitzsimmons fought George Gardner, they were pretty much the only two light heavyweight champions so technically they could qualify. And by the same logic, wasnt the Sugar Ray Leonard Donny Lalonde fight the first ever super middleweight championship, meaning technically these two qualified as well. This line of thinking opens up quite a few surprising contenders.
Armstrong was shot by the time he boxed Robinson however as 2 boxers who both arguably could be p4p the best of all time, there has probably never been more bigger names in the ring together in history.
