Fair point. For me personally though, Tarver being bigger, at his weight (hopkins moving up), being more skilled, and imo... would beat Pavlik head to head, outweighs their ages at the time of the win. Thats just imo though.
Damn, Dick Tiger beat Nino Benvenuti three months shy of his fortieth birthday. That would have been #1.
B-Hop was 49 when he took the WBA title off Shumenov. Unified champ at 49....I mean that's just lunacy.
Sugar Ray Robinson at 41 beat 27 year old Ralph Dupas via SD. Dupas in his next fight would snatch the super welterweight titles from Denny Moyer. Arcie Moore was 36 when he won the light-heavyweight title. He went on to take some losses at heavyweight but he kept defending his 175lb for nearly 10 years. Holyfield, albeit a dirty fighter, at 46 got robbed by Nikolai Valuev. Larry Holmes at 42 went to war with Ray Mercer, taking the decision. And at 52 he beat Butterbeat. I don't care who you are, at 52 you don't want to be fighting Butterbean. That dude could CRACK! I always thought that 41 year old Shane Mosley beating Cano was surprising and somewhat impressive. Many thought that Cano had been robbed in his previous bout vs Malignaggi.
Also shout out to Antonio Tarver, who unfortunately popped for PED's... In his 40's he beat Danny "The Legend" Green and Johnathon Banks. Also drew with Lateef Kayode and Steve Cunningham. Not bad for a 40 year old career light-heavyweight.
Worthy of being mentioned but Firat Arslan was robbed against Huck at 42, he would go on to lose another contentious decision against a top fighter and belt holder in Yuan Pablo Hernandez nearly 2 years later a month shy of his 44th birthday. FYI Huck was a week shy of being 28 and YPH was 2 months shy of his 30th(he would retire after his questionable win to the old man who still trecks on at nearly 50 years old.
Hopkins and Moore, would basically fill most of the top five, with Foreman and Robinson. Anyone beating a titlist is worthy of mention, not stitchups against deadbeats. Notice that next to none of them gets an "elite win" in their forties.
Eddie Cotton was robbed of the light heavyweight title against Jose Torres two months after his fortieth birthday in 1966.
Pacquiao W12 Thurman Hopkins W12 Tarver, Pavlik, and Pascal Holmes W10 Mercer Foreman KO10 Moorer --- Holyfield L12 Valuev should have been a win for the 46 year old Holyfield. Holyfield was less than 5 months away from his 40th birthday qhen he beat Rahman WTD8. Holmes lost by 1 point to McCall for the WBC strap when he was 45 1/2.