Which fighters post Robinson have had the opportunity to surpass him?

Disagree. Anything after Tarver knocking him out in the rematch was past his best. I thought he looked good in the rematch until he got caught. He was arguably the best guy in boxing until that point, sort of like Floyd past age 35.

Support for this view? Del Valle put Jones on his ass with the same shot years earlier and was inferior to Tarver.

 

I am not aware of any other pfp number 1 boxers who got waxed within two rounds, especially for their first non DQ loss.

 

That’s true…looking at his resume there doesn’t appear to be too many elite names on there.

If he took on and beat Michael Nunn at Middle or Supermiddle earlier in his career… and then later on, unified the Heavyweight belts by beating Vitali (or was it Lennox, I can never remember) then he would have been worthy of being in the conversation. In my opinion.

But he didn’t…so he isn’t.

 

Pre Tarver KO, I think Jones would have had a snowballs chance in the summer of beating Vitali. As long as he used constant movement and avoided any serious blows the whole night, he could pull it off. He'd need to manage his stamina very well though as all that movement would drain him. To quote Ali "2-3 steps for every one step".

 

Thomas Hearns is an obvious choice. Had he won them all he'd easily be the #1 of all time.

 

I feel like they only had those opportunities because they lost. I wouldn't say its impossible that Robinson will get surpassed but I will say it is very unlikely. It would take a special fighter in a special era to pull it off.

 

One of the few, perhaps the only metric, on which the modern fighters have surpassed those of the past, is longevity.

Modern pound for pound greats like Mayweather and Pacquiao, were operating at the very highest level of the sport, for longer than the pound for pound greats of the past.

Now you could argue that this is down to their lower level of activity, but I don't personally think that this is the only reason.

For example Pacquiao was regularly fighting the best in the world, over a period of more than 20 years.

This must have put an incredible strain on his body.

There will obviously never be another Sam Langford, Harry Greb, or Henry Armstrong, but there is perhaps a possible path to surpass them.

 

I look at context with losses and all but some things can't be unseen and going out on top is a notable thing to many people. I would put thousands of dollars down that a retiring Roy post Ruiz would be ranked higher than he is right now by the vast majority. You only need to look at how many hang their hat on his two KO losses as him being found out and glass chinned.......despite 15 years pf dominance and being mid 30's.

We obviously think quite differently about getting out of the game and avoiding those late losses. It's all good.

 

None.

 

I think Pacquiao had the best chance. His 8 weight classes, 5 lineal titles, and holding belts in 4 eras will see him enter many historian top ten lists in the coming decades. If he had won clearly against Marquez in their 3rd or 4th fight, and if he had decisively won against Mayweather, the boost to his resume and h2h standings I think would push him clearly into the top ten. As it stands now, I think the atg standings of Pacquiao and Mayweather will creep up through the 15-20 range in the years to come.