Teddy Atlas's top 10 light-heavyweights of all time

Of course it can do for some. For me, film can help to a limited extent, but only to assess how good a fighter was relative to their era. I completely discount cross era H2H from my rankings.

 

I love your researched lists at/around a weight class. Appreciate the work you put in.

I figure JHL has to be in the top 10. I have Spinks higher than you or Teddy but I’m not just looking at resume but also the eye test and the dominance …. Michael cleaned out a stacked division. Didn’t fight ‘em all as some knocked off others, but pre-title wins over the likes of Pops Johnson and Yaqui Lopez go a long way toward adding to an already impressive resume.

(I’m not a list-maker per se so if you asked me for a top 10 today and again next week they might look different, but I maintain that Michael Spinks is the best light heavyweight who ever lived.)

Also glad you addressed your position on why Maxie didn’t make the cut. He’s a curiousity … could obviously hang with (and beat) the best but I wonder how many of those head-scratching losses in his case come down to judges not liking or knowing what to make of his slapsy style.

 

Ah ok. Also was addressing that to posters here.

 

Cheers, Pat. From memory, JHL is unbeaten at the weight, going around 47-0-3 and he has some decent wins. I think he's an underrated LHW, rarely do I see him on top 10 lists. That said, I could see my #2-6 in just about any order, so absolutely no problem having Spinks above JHL. Both fantastic LHWs.

Rosenbloom is very tough to rate. He didn't make my 20, but I score dominance and consistency highly, and he did lose a lot. Something I will say for him, he seemed to do better when the title is on the line.

 

No Maske, No credibility.

 

I'm curious where do people have Virgil Hill and Dariusz Michalczewski in their lists. Two guys who I don't really see lot of people talk about despite being long reigning champs.

 

Why that’s the whole fun of it. That has been argued since the beginning of boxing. It will never stop.

 

I know of someone who has beaten 3 of the fighters on this list. Yet, he is not on this list.

 

I can't disagree with that, Steveo.

 

I think they are rated as lower tier greats perhaps people probably don't rate there resumes to put them high in lists.

 

I like the HM for Tommy Gibbons, DMT. He split his work thin over MW, LHW and HW, but still did very good work at LHW, which tells you how brilliant his overall record is.

Another deserving of an HM, that I haven't seen mentioned yet in this thread, is Jack Delaney, who has some terrific wins at LHW.

 

Good list from Teddy no?