Nat Fleischer's Top 10 Heavyweights

Let's see...Nat Fleischer's opinion....or yours...Gee...let me think about it!

 

Hmm..... I think I'll go for Moneymay1.Fleischer's ratings were dreadful.

 

I think Ali's incredibly brave performance against Smokin' Joe in '71 made him an ATG.Same goes for Smokin'Joe.

 

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that view. However, there is perhaps also a case for not having him take the place of anyone on an already established ATG listing, at that stage. After all, it was a loss for Ali.

Add to this that Ali went on to achieve hugely significant wins, including his redemption against Frazier, and I think it fair to say there is a marked gap between how he was perceived in early '71 and what people would come to think of him by late '75.

 

Obviously Fleischer had a different lens , one that altered quite a bit year to year, book to book .. while her met and spent a lot of time with the old timers I wonder how often he saw any of them fight live ? AS far as Ali off his list, you can't help but think it was motivated by the issues of the day because by the end of his 1960's title reign Ali was already being hailed as an all time great fighter at heavyweight by many .. he was not the popular icon but he was absolutely hailed as a great fighter so the source you go by is critical .. Ali -Frazier 1 was such an exceptional worldwide event as much because of two undefeated champs as what they both represented to a divided culture ..

 

Your memory of where this article came from might well be better than mine. Sixty year old memories are pretty shaky for old geezers like me. But it is all I have to rely on in some cases. There were a number of publications putting out yearbooks.

I do recall that exchange about Fitz and Corbett was in the article although Dundee was not. I think, involved in the article I read.

 

Fitz and Corbett. Jeffries and Ruhlin. And McGovern, Ketchell, Root, Dixon, Griffo. The turn of the century fighters on film.

If I recall the article correctly, when word got around there was a second showing with more boxing writers present. The consensus of this second group was that some of the old timers were badly overrated, but this did not entirely include Jack Johnson and Joe Gans.

 

Boston Tom McMustache would beat that lot with one side of his mustache shaved off … hell, he’d probably kill them with his bare hands if they even tried it.

And how can you leave out Iron Balls McGinty?

 

I appreciated Nat Fleicher's monthly top ten ratings , each and every month like clock work. His son in law Nat Loubet kept up the trend, until 1977 when he sold ratings to non other than Don King for the would be USA Championships for all divisions. I have all the top ten's monthly documented from 1959.

 

I would be interested in seeing those monthly ratings!

 

you talk about some hard work, putting that all together, I might be they only one in the world that has done them like that, send me your email address.

 

Ronny, I would love to see them too. Can I pm you my e-mail as well?

 

ABSOLUTELY, SURE JUST SEND ME YOUR EMAIL.

 

Could you just create a thread here and post them?

Wouldn’t have to dump all of them at once. Just pick a starting point and post the next month’s after that when you can get to it. It would be a great service to have those archived somewhere on the internet, and I can’t think of a better place than here.

 

Na mate, he needs your email so he can sell on your information and make a quick buck