Pretty self explanatory. My vote falls to Emile Griffith, staggering resume and mix of opponents. Haven't seen Griffith back down in a fight or pull back. He had all the confidence and ferocity of a great champion. Even when he was getting chopped up in his latter years he still had all the eagerness of a blood hound in chase. A lot of the same things can be said of Arguello, the Pryor fight, he went from cold eyed destroyer to loveable underdog in that one, For me he wasn't creeping death anymore he was an older guy far from his best weight trying to square up with the best guy he could find, what a man, very honourable fighter and it reeked of a knight looking to abandon his armour, seemed like he was looking for a warriors finish, he got it. Next is Rademacher LOL. Getting it on with Patterson on your debut takes some cojones and a bit of crazy.
fighters who fight UP out of their natural weight divisions regularly at Top Level, that takes some guts, skill and bravery. in times past it was an expected practice for some, as the Higher Weight Divisions were always known for Prize & Purse and Status. not for the feint hearted and certainly not like modern fighters who do this in the reverse, i.e. where they are a Natural L-HW fighting as a Welterweight, fighters regularly fighting Down. changed days indeed.
There is no answer to this question. Do you want a bunch of slugger types that smile through a bloody mouthpiece in defiance of the punches they've taken? That's probably a different question, and the list is too long anyway. For any number of reasons on any given day the mere act of stepping inside the ring can take the kind of courage not necessarily shown in a Rocky movie.
Shakespearian , you nailed it buddy, ANY fighter that climbs the steps is brave, from 4 rounder to title fight. stay safe buddy.
In ring, Sam Langford, taking on guys like Bill Tate, Tiger Flowers, Bearcat Wright and Jim Flynn while seeing shadows. Out of the ring, Lew Jenkins was at Sicily and Normandy, think he stayed on a boat in Normandy but he manned guns. But the answer is Barney Ross.
I agree with this. Great answer, Noel. Takes a strange kind of courage to go in there knowing you're going to lose and not to get handsomely rewarded for your troubles. Of the top performers, where would you start? Hearns getting up against Hagler and Barkley? Frazier getting up time and again v Foreman? The guy someone mentioned recently whose jaw had been broken clean? Other guys who may have been just as badly hurt but didn't happen to go down? There are just too many to even start. It's almost like asking 'Which boxer had two hands?'. They're getting in the ring to be punched hard and often (if brave enough). Virtually all of them is the answer. It's not a particularly satisfying answer but it's the answer the question deserves, to be frank.
Do you mean brave as in not being afraid to fight the best or do you mean never giving up while in the ring? I think Archie Moore has a good case for both of these. Who else can say that they fought both Burley and Ali?