5 greatest fighters you have seen in your lifetime as a fan

Roberto Duran, Larry Holmes, Usyk, Salvador Sanchez, Marvin Hagler.

 

Fighters who were still active when I started watching boxing would be something like Roy Jones, James Toney, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquaio and Erik Morales.

 

You've accumulated some substantial knowledge on the history of our sport in the short 8 years you've been following it, George. I'd have guessed you'd been a hard-core fan for a lot longer than that.

 

Thank you, my friend.

 

Duran, M. Spinks, Jones Jr., Pacquiao, Hearns.

 

Guys I have actually seen in action live:

Floyd Mayweather
Eddie Cotton
Doug Jones
Eddie Machen
Luis Rodriquez
Roger Rouse
Tim Witherspoon

Oops. That's seven!

 

Muhammad Ali
Roberto Duran
Roy Jones Junior
Sugar Ray Leonard
Floyd Mayweather
Manny Pacquaio
Pernell Whittaker
Oleksandr Usyk
Marvin Hagler
Tommy Hearns

 

To update, I'd put Crawford at 5 now on the first list instead of the others and Shakur at 2 on the in person list.

 

Mayweather
Roy Jones JR
Lennox Lewis
Usyk
Pac

 

Leonard
Duran
Hearns
Hagler
Sanchez.
My 2nd Tier
Arguello
Nelson
Whitaker
Pryor
Chavez Sr.
My 3rd Tier
Jones Jr.
Toney
McCallum
Benitez
Trinidad

 

Just 5
Duran
Leonard
Arguello
Holmes
Hagler

 

Roberto Duran
Ezzard Charles
Henry Armstrong
Archie Moore
Charley Burley

Honorable top 4 and 5:Sammy Angott and Bobo Olson

extra top 6:Fighting Harada

 

I’ll go just with fighters that I have seen fight live, in person.

First, the five who were best at time I saw them:

1. Mike Tyson (vs Spinks)
2. Roy Jones Jr (vs Sugar Boy Malinga)
3. Evander Holyfield (at cruiser, vs Qawi I)
4. Azumah Nelson (vs Lupe Suarez)
5. Julian Jackson (vs Efren Olivio — ironically, on the Azumah-Suarez undercard, the Hawk was WBA junior welterweight champ fresh off a KO of In Chul Baek and soon to starch Buster Drayton and Terry Norris. This was a marking-time bout contested at middle.)

Honorable mention: Michael Nunn (vs Crawford Ashley)

Now, the best five I’ve seen live, in person, even if the version I saw wasn’t necessarily the best (some overlap):

1. Larry Holmes (vs Eddie Donaldson and vs Anthony Willis during his ‘second career’ phase; also saw him in an exhibition post-retirement)
2. Roy Jr (see above)
3. George Foreman (vs Carlos Hernandez)
4. Lennox Lewis (vs Tyrell Biggs)
5. Evander Holyfield (see above; also saw him live at heavy vs Bert Cooper and Vaughn Bean)

I could probably add Michael Spinks to this list even though I only saw him for 91 seconds.