I was thinking about how many of us often rank fighters by who they beat and about the eras in various weight classes that had many standout fighters, and a singular fighter that came out on top. I'm just curious as to which eras members on the board view as great eras, and which fighters proved themselves as the greatest of said era. For example, Ali among the 70s heavyweights, Benny Leonard over the lightweights of the 20s, Ruben Olivares over 60s/70s bantamweights, etc. To be clear, I don't mean just dominant champions, but champions that seemed to have a very high class of contenders and fought them all, thus proving their superiority. Thoughts?
Heavyweight: 1971-1977 and 1991-1997. These are the two best eras for me, the era from 2015 onwards also showed potential, but so many good fights did not happen. Muhammad Ali was the best in the first era and the question of the best in the second was not settled until 1999 when Lennox Lewis beat Evander Holyfield for the undisputed crown. Light heavyweight: 1978-1985 was great. Spinks, Muhammad, Muhammad, Muhammad, Johnson and Lopez. There was also a great deal of action in the mid-to-late 40s but the best boxers of that division (e.g. Charles, Bivins, Moore, Marshall, Maxim) were not brought into the title scene during that time. There was also some good action in the 1920s (with the likes of Loughran and Delaney), but once again we had the same problem with Tunney and Greb not arriving at the title picture. Middleweight: Marvelous Marvin Hagler had to fight off Mugabi, Hearns, Duran and Leonard in his defenses of the middleweight championship in the 80s. Middleweight action in the 50s was also very intense with Cerdan, Lamotta, Sugar Ray Robinson, Basilio and Fullmer. Welterweight: This division has a history of being loaded with great fighters throughout the decades. The brief period between 1979 to 1981 saw the 'fab four' - Benitez, Leonard, Duran and Hearns battle out for the undisputed honor. Lightweight: The mid 1940s were a crazy time with Angott, Jack, Montgomery and Williams forming the original 'fab four'. Featherweight: The 2000s saw a new fab four - Pacquiao, Marquez, Morales and Barrera.
IMHO, a better example is Ali among the heavyweights of the 60s. In the 70s, Ali had 3 defeats, and a few more controversial wins. In the 1960s, Ali had no defeats, and only Liston 2's fight was controversial.
Miguel Canto 70's flyweights( 3 wins over oguma and gonzalez each as well as wins over hanagata, vargas and avelar) Ezzard Charles 40's lightheavyweight/heavyweight (dominated a stacked era with wins over moore×3, maxim ×5, walcott ×2, louis, lesnevich, bivins ×3, ray, marshall ×2, billy smith, burley×2 and yarosz) Emile Griffith 60's welterweight/middleweight (paret×2, ortega×2, dupas, moyer, rodriguez ×2, tiger×2, archer×2)
SRR, Ezzard Charles, Joe Louis and Willie Pep all did their best work in the 1940's. That's 4 of my top 11 p4p. Archie Moore, Charley Burley, Jimmy Bivins, Billy Conn, Manuel Ortiz, Lloyd Marshall, Sandy Saddler, Ike Williams and Holman Williams all did a lot of work in tbe 40's too. Henry Armstrong did his best work in the 30's, but still has an excellent record in the 40's.
The greatest in the greatest era imo. Not a list of the greatest of all time although there is some overlap obviously Heavyweight: Muhammad Ali Light Heavyweight: Ezzard Charles Middleweight: Harry Greb Welterweight: Sugar Ray Leonard Lightweight: Benny Leonard Featherweight: Pep Bantamweight: Ruben Oliveres Flyweight: Miguel Canto.
