Ring Magazine Fighter of the Decade Awards.

So these are the winners over the last century.

• 1910s: Sam Langford
• 1920s: Benny Leonard
• 1930s: Henry Armstrong
• 1940s: Sugar Ray Robinson
• 1950s: Sugar Ray Robinson (2)
• 1960s: Muhammad Ali
• 1970s: Roberto Durán
• 1980s: Sugar Ray Leonard
• 1990s: Roy Jones Jr.
• 2000s: Manny Pacquiao
• 2010s: Floyd Mayweather Jr.

I have two questions really

1) who should have won the awards for

1880s
1890s
1900s

2) is there a more deserving fighter in any of the other decades?

 

So for me the 1880s is between two fighters: John L Sullivan and Non Pareil Dempsey. Both beat everyone they fought in the decade, but NP did finish up the decade being knocked out, that being said John L finished the decade being an alcoholic who rarely fought. Tough call but I give the edge to Dempsey.

The 1890s, imo is an easy call. That has to be Bob Fitzsimmons. But George Dixon deserves an honourable mention.

The 1900s is much harder to cal with lots of names in the hat. Barbados Walcott, Jack Johnson, Bob Fitzsimmons, Stanley Ketchel and Abe Attell all putting up good claims, but for my money the crown has to go to Joe Gans.

So I have it

1880s: Jack Dempsey
1890s: Bob Fitzsimmons
1900s: Joe Gans


As for more deserving contenders, I'm pretty happy with the winners listed decade by decade to be honest.

 

Very close between Langford and Gans, but for my money Gans edges it just about.

 

Charles is a good shout. The others I don't see tbh.

Ali was so consistent and was dominating everyone of note in the division.

Benny Leonard was lauded as P4P number 1 and the best boxer of all time throughout his career, I'm quite happy with his place.

Mayweather proved himself the best boxer around even at such an advanced age. I mean the only people you would argue above him in the decade, he beat and that speaks volumes.

 

Griffith never set himself apart form the division and arguably lost every fight to LMR. Imo there is no comparison between the two.

Greb and Leonard, I thought most of Grebs best work was in the 1910s but he did have a good run in the 20s. Although I'm fairly certain he was never considered better than Leonard in his own era and the two completely overlapped. It seems a bit revisionist to switch the two imo.

The marg victory means less than nothing imo. The victory was against a punch bag with no menaingfingful performance in over 2 years and nothing to indicate he ever recovered from the Mosley loss and certainly nothing to indicate he was a LMW champion.

 

Ali couldn't move up in weight though, so the multi championship issue has no bearing here. Its just who has a better record and for me it isn't even close tbh.

Greb has a good shout, i had tmhe dates wrong when I dismissed him previously.

 

Its more that Ali doesn't get penalised just because others can.

For example, in the 60s Ali beat

Liston, Terrell, Chuvalo and Williams below 220 pounds
Patterson and Quarry below 200 pounds
Moore, Cooper and Jones below 190 pounds

So we say he was only a champion in 1 division, but he beat fighters who weighed in at vastly different amounts.

Also look at his own weight. He was between 200 and 210 for the first part of the decade. Between 210 and 220 for the next part of the decade.

The HW is an unlimited division, that's why it gets no less credit than multi weight divisions.