Make a list on your top 10 favorite fighters.

1. Ken Buchanan
2. Gennadiy Golovkin
3. Roman Gonzalez
4. Julio Cesar Chavez
5. Veeraphol Sahaprom
6. Artur Beterbiev
7. Carlos Monzon
8. Shakur Stevenson
9. Andre Ward
10. Kazuto Ioka

Ask me again tomorrow and I'd probably have a mostly different list.

 

In no particular order

Tommy Hearns
Lennox Lewis
Chris Eubank Sr
Matthew Saad Muhammad
George Foreman
Muhammad Ali
Oleksandr Usyk
Mike McCallum
Roberto Duran
Larry Holmes

 

(1) Ali
(2) Hearns
(3) SRL
(4) Hagler
(5) Holmes
(6) RJJ
(7) Gatti
(8) Holyfield
(9) Tyson
(10) Pryor

 

Benn N.
Hearns
Pacqiao
Inoue
Foreman
Lewis
SRL
Calzaghe
Hamed
Ali

 

5 of mine there. Good shouts.

 

Marciano
McLarnin
Greb
Holyfield
Duran
Locche
Lomachenko
Benvenutti
Hagler
Young Corbett III



Hard to rank them in any order tho

 

Foreman, Ali, Holmes, Duran, Saad Muhammad, Sanchez, Liston, Frazier, Hagler, Holyfield.

 

Frazier
Duran
Hagler
Robinson
Roy Jones
Marciano
Patterson
Liston
Armstrong
Tyson

 

Man, Halimi Gutierrez really takes me back. The first time I saw him fight was against Felex Marquez, a world-rated Venezuelan, and I was very impressed with Gutierrez' win. Next up was his biggie. A non-title 10 rounder against world flyweight champ Erbito Salavarria. I didn't quite understand in my youth why this was a non-title bout. Gutierrez was ranked #5 in the world. Really? A non-title? The way Gutierrez handled Salavarria was a sight to behold. To this day, I have never seen a faster pair of hands at work than that night. They were like a blur. And he even decked the champ during the fight. It was a masterpiece and I was hooked. Instead of just getting a title shot, he was matched 2 months later with the #1 contender Fernando Cabanela in what was probably a final eliminator. I recall the sharpness in his punches but he seemed off. I later heard he had to shed 2 pounds the day of the fight. But that's no excuse. Hey, if you're fighting a final eliminator, it's up to you and your team to have you ready. Cabanela was tall and rangy and as far as I recall, he managed to keep Halimi at bay for the decision. And of course, Cabanela got the title shot, albeit against Masao Ohba. About a year after that Halimi started to fizzle. The hand speed was like a comet and it was burning him out. He'd still pull out a win here and there over a decent opponent like Raul Tirado, Famosito Gomez and Manuel Montiel. But the years between '69 and '72 where he graced Ring Magazine's top ten for app. 36 months were gone. But he made one helluva impression on me, let me tell ya.

 

Ezzard, Michael Spinks, Floyd Patterson, Michael Watson, Felix Trinidad. Johnny Owen, Gary Mason, Richie Woodall, Saad, Tommy Hearns would be today's top ten.

 

1. Roberto Duran
2. Mathew Saad Muhammad
3. Joe Frazier
4. Felix Trinidad
5. Calvin Grove
6. Bert Cooper
7. Anthony Two Guns Fletcher
8. Bernard Hopkins
9. Roy Jones
10. Sugar Ray Robinson

 

That's awesome. So You saw him live - in person - or were his fights televised at the time?

 

Two things:
A. I probably overrate my favourites, now I think about it.
B. I obviously like a fighter with a good story.

1. Sonny Liston
2. Stanley Ketchel
3. Jimmy Wilde
4. Sam Langford
5. Joe Gans
6. Bob Fitzsimmons
7. Roberto Duran
8. Joe Frazier
9. George Foreman
10. Salvador Sanchez

Loads more I could have added.

 

Sanchez was exciting and a level above his competition.