In close to the first 100 years of fighting ending in 1985, only 9 men had achieved a status of champion in 3 weight divisions. and the list is a who's who of the greatest: Fitzsimmons ,Canzoneri ,Ross, Armstrong, E. Griffith, Benitez, Arguello, Duran, and Wilfredo Gomez...in the next 35 years , a whopping 43 men achieved this status. Obviously the multi division champ legacy has been greatly weakened as a measure of greatness. You have fighters who have 4,5 even 8 division championships. Who would be the greatest multi division champ in history? Too many to make a poll I suspect, here's my short list Armstrong Duran Hearns Fitzsimmons
Armstrong is number 1 of all the legit multi-weight champs (of 3 or more divisions) in my opinion. What he did from 1937 to 1938 between featherweight and welterweight will never be matched. He's the absolute gold standard. Other really great multi-weight champs are Fitzsimmons, Barney Ross, Tony Canzoneri, Emile Griffith, Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard. Maybe a notch down from those guys are the likes of Alexis Arguello, Floyd Mayweather, Thomas Hearns, Pernell Whitaker, Wilfred Benitez, Wilfredo Gomez, Julio Cesar Chavez, Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao. After that, it starts to get muddy.
Armstrong's is most impressive IMO All strong weight classes, and limited means of dropping/gaining weight!
In all seriousness, is there a multi-weight champion less deserving of that accolade than Adrien Broner?
Hearns was better than Armstrong and Duran at welter and he beat Cuevas to win his belt at 147 while Duran out did Armstrong at the weight by beating Leonard however he lost his rematch at that weight to Ray. Tommy snuffs out Duran`s light middle belt winning achievment by beating him easily at 154 and also had to beat the awesome Benitez to win that title, who also beat Druran at 154, Tommy looked fantastic going toe to toe v Hagler despite losing, however he didn`t win the belt in that bout and won it looking sloppy, I don`t rate Tommy that high at 160 aside from the Hagler epic or his blast out of Shuler, he also only won the WBO title at 168 before it was as established as the other three belts at that time, I also wasn`t impressed wityh Tommy at 175, Hill was ovderrated and that win was ruined by Tommy looking messy v Barkley in their rematch, he beat Andries who I didn`t rate as a world class fighter.