Most depth in 8 original division history

Very tough call,,,,not sure there's a right answer

 

If you take the average of the weights of all American athletes, it is about 180-199 pounds. Boxing during the eight-division era was dominated by the United States, and it should therefore come as no surprise that the light-heavyweight division has had maximum depth. The second is middleweight (the division right below it). And the third is welterweight.

 

Having said that the average weight would have been significantly less, in the 20s and the depression era, when the global talent pool might have been at hits deepest.

It should come as no surprise that this environment produce a very impressive lightweight division.

 

there has often been back n forth agreement/disagreement between Welters, Middles, and Lightweights as the Greatest Overall divisions throughout Boxing History...

I always understood it to be Middleweight as the most often cited...
also I should say, there was a Great 30 year period of Flyweights and smaller men and 'they' were equally Brits too and not just Americans.

anyhow I don't know with any certainty, but I have to agree with the consensus at Middleweight.

 

I think MW and LW have the most strength in depth, historically.

 

Lightweight is clearly the best IMO.

I'd have middleweight second.

 

Definitely not heavyweight. I wouldn't even take the 11-20 heavyweights over the featherweights.

You can really argue any of the seven below heavyweight at number one, but heavy is indisputably the worst of the eight divisions.

 

I think the best HWs are generally ranked higher than the best Flys.

This is the best top 100 p4p list I've ever seen -
https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/the-top-100-pound-for-pound-all-time-greats.459918/

Even limiting HWs to career HWs (I.e. ignoring #1 Langford, #5 Charles, #6 Fitz, etc.), the list of HWs and Flys in order is:

1. Ali
2. Louis
3. Wilde
4. Marciano
5. Canto
6. Holmes
7. Perez
8. Frazier
9. Lewis
10. Foreman

7 x HWs and only 3 x Flys.

The number 2 HW at #9 vs the number 2 Fly at #73.

 

I'd take a lot of issues with that list, even outside of comparing flyweight and heavyweight. For example, I'm pretty sure I had Jimmy Wilde in the top 15 - definitely top 20 - while on this list, he's at 32.

Then I'd say there's some pretty key flyweights missing, who should absolutely rank higher than some of those heavyweights IMO. There's no Midget Wolgast, no LaBarba, no Frankie Genaro, no Pancho Villa. To me these guys are absolutely better pound-for-pound than guys like Lewis, Holmes, Frazier and Foreman.

A pound-for-pound list also doesn't tell you how deep a division can go. In 100 fighters, only seven were heavyweights and only three were flyweights. That's not much to go off when saying which of these 100+ year old divisions is better.

Flyweight is a much deeper division, and just looking at a comparison of Matt's top 21-30 at fly and at heavy shows this IMO. I can't find Matt's top 50 heavyweights, so I'll use my own, but I'll still use his top 50 flyweights because I can't find my one lol

https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-b...atest-flyweights-of-all-time-part-three-30-21

#30. Terry Allen
#29. Muangchai Kittikasem
#28. Percy Jones
#27. Santos Laciar
#26. Efren Torres
#25. Jackie Paterson
#24. Roman Gonzalez
#23. Yoshio Shirai
#22. Tancy Lee
#21. Pongsaklek Wonjongkam

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/my-top-50-hws.655123/

#30. Alexander Povetkin
#29. Vitali Klitschko
#28. Bob Fitzsimmons
#27. Ingo Johansson
#26. Sam Langford
#25. Tim Witherspoon
#24. Ken Norton
#23. Chris Byrd
#22. Harry Wills
#21. Max Baer

To me, the flyweight list is much, much deeper IMO. Heavyweight has some really impressive fighters at the top of its list, but really doesn't compare as you go further down IMO.

 

I have Wilde top 20 too.

The list is the best top 100 I've seen, but I don't agree with every placing and I suspect everyone's lists would differ to one degree or another, if they took the trouble of researching and compiling one (I'm only up to the top 30 on way own).

I appreciate if you did a top 100 p4p list and/or deeper, you may have Fly's higher than HWs, but McGrain has clearly done huge amounts of research over a lot of years, knows his stuff and many other posters views were at least considered in that 100-page plus thread, so I disagree with your comment "heavy is indisputably the worst of the of the eight divisions". It may be in your opinion, and as someone who also really knows their boxing, you're certainly as entitled to that opinion as anyone, but there are others who also really know their boxing who would dispute it.

 

Personally I think it's clearly MW. I could name a number of ATG's who began their careers at MW and either stayed there or moved up to LHW and even HW.

MW has more depth than any other division.