I agree. To add a much more rarely mentioned name: Howard Davis Jr. was a sensationally promising boxer in his early years as well.
In my lifetime, i would say Usyk at heavy and cruiser, RJJ at light heavy, GGG at middleweight, Canelo at 154, Crawford at 147. This is just based on what i have seen in my lifetime. Historically, on film, i would say Ali at heavy, Usyk at cruiser, Spinks at 175, Hagler at middle, McCullum at 154 and SRL at 147 based on the footage i have seen. I find it very hard to compare guys in different weight divisions. Very hard. So i try to limit it to divisions.
JJW Charles and Lloyd Marshall, safe bets against most anyone on absolutely fair & even playing fields!
Best I've seen on film is probably Lomachenko. He's made world champions look like amateur hour. This content is protected
Getting stopped multiple times isn't going to do much for someones chances of best of all time. Guys like Frazier, Patterson and Holyfield aren't even in the race. SRR would likely be my #1. Duran, Jones and Ali would be in the convo after him, maybe among a few others.
Tyson Foreman once said that when he met Tyson, he was the greatest athlete he had ever seen and couldn't believe it.
Ray Leonard is the best I've seen live. (Ray Robinson was the G.O.A.T, but his last fights were a few months after I was born.) But Leonard beat four prime ATG'S, The greatest Lightweight,(Duran) the greatest Jr. middleweight, (Hearns) and the greatest Middle (Hagler my opinion) And one of the greatest defensive fighters in the history of the welters, (Benitez) Each one of those fights demonstrated Leonard's adaptability, determination, skills, speed , power, and killer instincts. Without a doubt he's the best boxer of the last 50 -60 yrs in my opinion. The competition speaks for itself.....
All good names. Whitaker also looked an absolute beast in his prime. So hard to say, though, since there are so many factors. Our boy Roy is probably the one that looked the most outlandish at his peak, I'd say. But you can never say for sure, maybe Tarver always had his number. Don't think so, but who knows. Duran and maybe SRR might be the most complete. With SRR we don't have much prime footage, though.
While I'm incline to believe the Massacre of Valentine was the best of the series, I was really sorrowful when I discovered that there is no footage of the the other fights from the Robinson-LaMotta series. I was equally sad when I found out there is no tape of Robinson's prime at welterweight smh...