I don’t know if this one’s been done, but I figured I’d take a swing at it. Basically, I’m looking for not the best fight ever in each division, but the single best result on someone’s resume fighting in that division. Obviously lots of factors can go into this discussion, so it should be a lively one. Here’s mine off thee top of my head, and subject to change when someone comes along and cites a better one in this class or that. And let’s not parse divisions with ‘welll he’d have been a cruiserweight at the time if that division had existed yet.’ Also, doesn’t have to be a title fight. Here we go: Heavyweight; Muhammad Ali KO8 George Foreman Cruiserweight: Evander Holyfield W15 Dwight Muhammad Qawi Ligh heavyweight: Gene Tunney W10 Harry Greb (went with this one as it was reported as being very one-sided and decisive as opposed to Tunney’s narrow 15-round win) Super middleweight: Roy Jones Jr W12 James Toney Middleweight: Ray Leonard W12 (split) Marvin Hagler Junior middleweight: Mike McCallum KO2 Julian Jackson Welterweight: Ray Leonard TKO14 Thomas Hearns Junior welterweight: Barney Ross W15 (split) Tony Canzoneri II Lightweight: Roberto Duran TKO13 Ken Buchanan Junior lightweight: Marco Antonio Barerra W12 (majority) Erik Morales Featherweight: Sandy Saddler KO4 Willie Pep Junior featherweight: Wilfredo Gomez TKO14 Lupe Pintor Bantamweight: Carlos Zarate KO4 Alfonso Zamora Junior bantamweight: ??? Flyweight: Pancho Villa KO7 Jimmy Wilde Junior flyweight: ??? I’ll leave super fly and junior fly to my more learned friends on the lightest weight classes, and I’m sure I have a few swing-and-a-miss selections on here too, but it should be a fun debate and discussion. Perhaps our buddy @Rumsfeld will consider it for a future video project.
Heavyweight: Muhammad Ali over George Foreman Cruiserweight: Oleksandr Usyk over Mairis Briedis Light Heavyweight: Ezzard Charles over Moore in their third fight Super Middleweight: Roy Jones over James Toney Middleweight: Ezzard Charles over Charley Burley Super Welterweight: Michael Nunn's KO1 of Sumbu Kalambay Welterweight: Roberto Duran's win over Sugar Ray Leonard Super Lightwiehght: Barney Ross over Tony Canzoneri Lightweight: Benny Leonard's KO of Freddie Welsh Super Featherweight: Erik Morales over Manny Pacquiao Featherweight: Willie Pep over Sandy Saddler Super Bantamweight: Wilfredo Gomez over Lupe Pintor Bantamweight: Fighting Harada over Eder Jofre Super Flyweight: Gonzalez over Estrada or vice versa ? Flyweight: Pancho Villa over Jimmy Wilde Don't know anything about 108 or 105.
I'll have a ago. Heavyweight = Frazier defeating Ali Cruiserweight = Holyfield defeating Dwight Qawi or Usyk beating Breidis/Gassiev in the Super Six Tournament. Light Heavyweight = There's quite a few candidates. Tarver KOing RJJ Charles defeating Moore in their 3rd fight Tunny defeating Greb 1st fight Super Middleweight = RJJ defeating Toney Middleweight = I'll go with Turpin over Robinson because Robinson was 129-1. But Leonard vs Hagler is also a good choice. Jr Middleweight = Hearns KOing Duran Welterweight = LaMotta giving Robinson his first defeat or Leonard defeating Hearns. Jr Welterweight = Locche schooling Cervantes, Phillips upsetting Tszyu, Pryor defeating Arguello, Ross defeating Canoneri, alot of good candidates. Lightweight = Ambers defeating Armstrong Super Featherweight = Morales defeating Pacquiao? Featherweight = Saddler defeating Pep Super Bantamweight = Gomez defeating Zarate ? Bantamweight = Harada defeating Jofre Super Flyweight = Rungvisai giving Gonzalez his first loss. Flyweight = Gonzalez defeating Canto That's all I've got for now off the top of my head @Saintpat
Some that haven't been mentioned yet Heavyweight- Schmeling KO 12 Louis Cruiserweight- Haye TKO 7 Mormeck Light Heavyweight- Spinks UD Qawi Super Middleweight- Andre Ward UD Carl Froch Middleweight- Taylor UD Bernard Hopkins Light Middleweight- Trinidad TKO 11 Vargas or Benitez UD Roberto Duran Welterweight- Zivic UD Armstrong Super Welterweight- Dulio Loi UD Carlos Ortiz or Frankie Randall SD Chavez Lightweight- De Jesus UD Roberto Duran Super Featherweight- Mayweather TKO Corrales Featherweight- Pacquaio TKO Barrera Super Bantamweight- Morales SD Barrera or Junior Jones UD Barrera Bantamweight- Montiel TKO Hozumi Hasegawa Super Flyweight- Vic Darchinyan KO 9 Mijares Flyweight- Daisuke Naito UD Pongsaklek Wonjongkam Light Flyweight- Carbajal TKO 11 Jorge Acre Minimumweight- Ricardo Lopez SD Alvarez
Heavy: Rahman ko Lewis Cruiser: Usyk over Breidis 175: Tarver ko Jones 168: Calzaghe over Kessler 160: idk 154: Floyd over Canelo 147: Montreal 140: Chavez over Taylor 135 idk 130 Floyd over Corrales 126 maybe Pac over Barrera, but Chenko over GRJ was probably higher level 122 Rigo over Donaire
Man, I love these queries that make you think. OK, here are a few, but I'll be back later Heavyweight - Joe Louis KO1 Max Schmeling - we were on the precipice of WW2 and Max - although a good guy - was Hitler's pawn. No single win better. Middleweight - Harry Greb W15 Mickey Walker - Two of the best of their era going at and by all accounts a damn good fight Lightweight - Roberto Duran KO12 Esteban DeJesus - the rubber match and on top of that, since their second fight DeJesus picked up the WBC title so this was for all the marbles and they turned in a great fight Bantam - Carlos Zarate KO4 Alfonso Zamora - should have been for the unified title as both WBA and WBC champs duked it out to an explosive finish Super Fly - Johnny Tapia W12 Danny Romero - Man, everyone was equally divided on the outcome of this fight with both holding portions of the title
HW: Frazier-Ali 1 or Ali-Foreman CW: Holy-Qawi 2 LHW: Charles-Moore 3 SMW: Jones-Toney MW: Greb-Walker JMW: Tito-Vargas WW: Armstrong-Ross or Robinson-Gavilan 2 jWW: Pryor-Arguello 2 or Chavez-Taylor 1 LW: Williams-Montgomery 2 jLW: Mayweather-Corrales or Arguello-Escalera 1 FW: Saddler-Pep 1 or Pep-Saddler 2 jFW: Fenech-Payakaroon or Gomez-Zarate BW: Zarate-Zamora or Olivares-Rose jBW: Tapia-Romero fly: Villa-Wilde
I agree with probably the whole list. These were all epic historical wins that age like wine. There's a few other candidates that deserve mentioning such as Usyk beating the younger Gassiev to become the first undisputed Cruiserweight champ in quite a while, but Qawi was better than Gassiev. Floyd's master class domination of Canelo is hard to ignore, although Canelo wasn't as good back then as he is now. But it's impressive mostly because of Floyd's age and the fact he moved up way higher than his natural limit. The upcoming Bivol vs Beterbieve winner will be a major historical clash, I anticipate.
HW: ali vs foreman CW: holyfield vs qawi LHW: charles vs moore (any of their three fights) SMW: jones vs toney MW: turpin vs robinson 1 SWW: hearns vs benitez WW: armstrong vs ross SLW: benitez vs cervantes (benitez being 17 is what pushed it to number for me) LW: gans vs nelson SFW: morales vs pacquiao FW: saddler vs pep 1/2 or kilbane vs attel (couldn't decide on this one) SBW: gomez vs zarate BW: harada vs jofre SFlyW: roman vs watanabe FlyW: villa vs wild or park vs canto or naito vs wonjongkam 3 (i really can't decide) JFlyW: chang vs zapata 2 or flores vs gushiken 2 or ioka vs yuh 1 MinW: lopez vs alvarez 2
I was basically a coin flip between Benitez-Cervantes and Ross-Canzoneri II and Wilfred’s age was a big reason why. I eventually settled on the more vintage fight but either has a good argument.
Just adding that at HW… Schemling vs Louis 1 was a genius plan, that’s a fight to study and learn from - better win then FOTC for my 0.2$ for 160lbs I actually like (don’t know if it’s “the best”) Tiger vs Griffith (for filmed bouts) that’s a 147lber (151lbs) surrendering 9lbs to a guy who was going to go up and become LHW champ very soon, Tiger was a monster renowned for his strength, durability and no nonsense style, Griffith had brazen to spare.
I’ve always wondered how RITJ can be considered “The Greatest” win at HW, it comes up a bit, do you mean historically? Because really it was a green guy getting beat up with too many nerves, good marketing made it great, similar deal with Toney vs Jones… Toney was very obviously drained, is beating a weight drained guy who wasn’t there really better then every 168lber win? Maybe if we go by names only.
As for George, how green was he? Heavyweight champ in his third defense in his 41st fight after destroying the champion Frazier in merciless fashion that completely jaw-dropped the boxing world. He had an Olympic gold medal pedigree and been a pro for more than five years with some nice wins on his resume. This isn’t Leon Spinks we’re talking about. It’s as seasoned as you could ask a pro to be. Is he supposed to fight 150 fights because he’s a big puncher who knocked a lot of guys out quickly? And isn’t that what made him dangerous — that wrecking-ball power? Ali beat him laying on the ropes (which everyone said was the worst place to be vs George) and taking everything Foreman could throw at him and mentally draining and dominating him. If that’s not a great win, I’d love to see some examples. If you want to argue it’s not the greatest single win in heavyweight history, sure, there’s room for discussion. But you seem to dismiss it — I’m assuming you weren’t around at the time putting your mortgage on Ali and telling all your pals how you had a sure thing while you were planning to move to a luxury suite on an island. As for Toney … it was his first defeat in 46 fights as a pro and his only one-sided defeat in his first 57. He weighed 168 just 3 1/2 months earlier and knew the fight was coming. I personally don’t care much for the *had good excuse asterisk and I don’t see how this is a good excuse if he managed to both gain and lose a lot of weight in like 100 days with the biggest fight of his life to that point (and arguably of his whole career) staring him in the face. I don’t see evidence of him looking emaciated or weak in the ring. I see him completely being outclassed by someone with superhuman speed and reflexes who was playing with his food. No way I’ll ever buy that even if Toney was ‘weight-drained’ that he was not also equally ‘weight-drained’ in other bouts where he managed to perform and win. I think that same Toney probably beats any other super middleweight in the world on the same night. He was just completely outclassed and had an excuse that people wanted to buy. Not being a professional isn’t a good excuse, even if you want to buy his sale of ‘woe is me, I ripped and fell into an all-you-can-eat buffet every day on the way to the gym’ tale. So that’s how I see those two fights.