Favourite boxers

Toney and McCallum - a combination of technical excellence, ***** of steel, and aggression

 

Joe Louis - no reasons needed for loving the Brown Bomber, perhaps the most significant boxer ever
Carlos Monzon - love watching him fight, amazing resume
Ezzard Charles - kind of like Louis, no reasons really needed
Ricardo Lopez - watching him break down a fighter is something to behold
Primo Carnera - my grandfather met him, Italian, etc.
Salvador Sanchez - one of the big "what ifs" in boxing history (Pancho and Ketchel too), very fun to watch
Jack Johnson - read a book on him, love his larger than life behavior and the hate-filled opinions of fans at the time
Ray Robinson - the GOAT, few have a longer or better highlight reel

Floyd Mayweather Jr. - seen him fight in person, amazing skills, always in huge fights
Pongsaklek Wonjongkam - a true legend of the era too often unappreciated
Kazuto Ioka - have loved watching the quick start to his career, diverse boxer
Paulie Malignaggi - appreciate his fighting spirit, love his personality long before Juan Diaz fight
Paul Williams - all around classic in every way
Giovani Segura - war after war after war, first fight with Calderon one of my favorites ever
Victor Ortiz - if not Segura or Maidana, Ortiz is genuinely the most exciting fighter of the last 6 or so years

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EDIT: Joe Louis would be my number one. His cultural and historical relevance transcended sports in a way that has never been matched since. Plus he is a tremendous fighter with a godly resume and he authorized some of the best KO's you'll ever see.

 

Al "Bummy" Davis.
If he fought Pac today, he would take Pac's head off.

 

Rios easy.
Gatti could not take a bodyshot.

 

If you have gatti beating rios I question your boxing iq

 

Gatti was protected, hbo loved him because of his exciting style. Rios woulda stopped him.

 

Duran.. One of the best ever, fought everybody, fought with so much passion and enthusiasm.

Tito also loved his enthusiasm, his smile, his ability to destroy.

right now chocolatito and Golovkin.

 

Salvador Sanchez, of course..........he died about a year before I got into boxing so I never saw him "live" but I'd read about him in the monthly magazines in retrospective pieces or in back issues I would order, and just his cool, calm demeanor seemed interesting. Try to find a picture of him with his mouth open during a fight. Seems simple, right? It's hard to do. That speaks to his collected sense of self and also his tremendous conditioning, which is the stuff of legend. His heartrate would apparently return to normal during the 60 seconds between rounds, so that he would be breathing completely normally in the late rounds of a very tough fight. He was nails late in fights.

He was also a very smart, calculating fighter, a brilliant counterpuncher, and had a great sense of ring generalship. That, coupled with the sort of James Dean thing he had, drew me in and made me wish I had seen him fight in real time.

Bobby Chacon is another favorite. Complete opposite of Sanchez in terms of professionalism. Bobby never skipped a party, and never took things too seriously. He paid the price in the ring more than once, but his fights are so mesmerizing, so exciting, you could tell that combat was the one thing he took very seriously. You were going to get all he had to give, whatever that may be.

Flaws in people and fighters are interesting to me. Being "perfect" or "flawless" is boring in itself. Skills tell you nothing about the person, and in my way of thinking, who you are as a person should be at least partially reflected in what you leave in the ring. Those are the ones that are rightfully remembered.

 

Duran
Manny Paquiao
Julio César Chávez
Marvin Hagler
Mike Tyson
Froch

 

Sal Sanchez - For many Mexicans and fans worldwide it is "Chava", not Chavez, as regarded the greatest Mexican fighter of all time and head to head with Willy Pep as the greatest featherweight of all time. Started out as your dime a dozen flat footed Mexican brawler, but with serious one punch power. Lost and drew, changed his style after that. Like Barrera after him, Sanchez totally reinvented himself. Imagine Margarito, but boxing like Lomanchenko all of a sudden. Already possessing an iron chin and the greatest stamina of any boxer, Sanchez developed and adopted a boxer puncher style that'd make Robinson proud. By 23 with a high ring IQ, he was 44-1-1, beaten 2 future ATG's, at least 3 other hall of famers, and he wasn't done yet. At 23, he wasn't even at his best yet. But it was also at 23 when he was taken early from us. I always wondered why the mighty Chavez always humbly denied he was the greatest Mexican fighter of all time. Now I know why.

Joey Giardello - Italian American boxer technician that was as tough as they came and ducked NO ONE. Defeated a slightly past his prime Robinson, drew with Gene Fullmer, outboxed the extremely dangerous Hurricane Carter, and fought African legend **** Tiger 4 times. At his best, Giardello was a force to be reckoned against, that goes for any middleweight in history. Don't let that record fool you. Aside from a great boxer, he had a heart of a champion, championing for the mentally disabled, particularly the ones with Down's Syndrome, as his son had the condition. One of the most underrated Imo.

Roberto Duran - The epitome of a macho man. Fearless of any man of any size or shape. Panamainian mother and Mexican-American marine father, Duran grew up the hard way. Lightweight brawler with a deadly one punch power, he liked to maul his opponents down, and had a reign of terror at 135 that most believed earned him the title of greatest lightweight of all time. He could of stopped there, but instead, he moved up divisions and defiantly took on the BEST of his generation and yet a future generation that wasn't supposed to be his. An idol to millions and precursor to Tyson, easy to see why, there have been pretenders and imposters that claim to be legitimate giant killers like Duran was. If you combined Pacquiao's fury, Julian Jackson's one punch power, Floyd's ring IQ, and Margarito's iron chin, that still fall's short and just gives you a faint idea how great a prime Duran really was. The Brawl in Montreal is brawling 101 and of course it takes 2 to tango as he was in with another legend, SRL, but it is by far Duran's greatest performance and the only man able to beat a prime Leonard. There will be glimpses in some fighters, but there never will be another "Manos De Piedra".