Sonny Liston Muhammad Ali Joe Frazier Bob Foster Dick Tiger Joey Giardello Nino Benvenuti Luis Rodriguez Emile Griffith Curtis Cokes Jose Napoles Duilio Loi Niccolino Locche Paul Fuji Carlos Ortiz Mando Ramos Flash Elorde Sugar Ramos Vicente Saldivar Eder Jofre Ruben Olivares Fighting Harada Pone Kingpetch Chartchai Chionoi Some great names here and no doubt I've missed off plenty more great ones. Who would make up your top 10 and in which order?
Tried a new (loose not sure if I like it?) system to look at this.. 1 Carlos Ortiz 2 Emile Griffith 3 Di ck Tiger 4 Ali 5 Fighting Harada 6 Flash Elorde 7 Luis Manuel Rodriguez 8 Eder Jofre 9 Floyd Patterson 10 Pone Kingpetch 11 Nino Benvenutti 12 Curtis Cokes 13 Sonny Liston 14 Jose Napoles 15 Eddie Perkins
Thanks Philly! Good list and I would put Ortiz definitely in my top 3 but I just don't think there's a really obvious pick for number 1. I forgot about Eddie Perkins from my original list as well. Forgot Floyd Patterson too although he seems a bit high. Hard to forget the two 1st round KOs to Liston, who is lower on your list.
1. Eder Jofre 2. Carlos Ortiz 3. Muhammad Ali 4. Fighting Harada 5. Emile Griffith 6. D ick Tiger 7. Luis Rodriguez 8. Vicente Saldivar 9. Nino Benvenuti 10. Ruben Olivares Bob Foster, Flash Elorde, Jose Napoles definitely feel they are strong contenders but I feel like Napoles majority of best work was in the 1970s (as was Olivares who I’d rate below Napoles all-time pound for pound).
Cool list! An exercise like this is extremely difficult to do especially for the reason you listed some guys straddled the 50-60’s and others the 60’s to 70’s. In Napoles defense he was top 10 rated during 6 of those years, top 5 for 5 years and champ or number 1 contender the other 4 years. I think he factors into the conversation as Olivares and Saldivar didn’t really have a longer run than him. Tiger and Rodriguez were the only 2 who were top 10 every yesr of the decade that I saw. Tiger was top 3 for all but one year and at the top in 2 divisions for 5 of them. On a cursory glance Tiger holds his own with anybody in this decade.
Jofre Ali Foster Ortiz Griffith Saldivar Brown Tiger Liston Olivares I would have included Moore but he was running on fumes by then,imo.
I had the same top 3, although I had Ali at no. 1. I'm not sure that there is a clear best though. In fact, our lists are very similar! I think Napoles, Foster and Olivares are all quite hard to rate because they were in their primes during the 60s but picked up world titles late in the decade and made much of their championship reputations in the 70s, like you said about Napoles. It's arguable that Napoles was the best operator of the whole decade in terms of ability yet that doesn't automatically put him in the top 10. So, yeah, some of the very best fighters might not make the list because they only came to their world titles late on in the decade and did better work in the 70s.
This is mine. 1. Muhammad Ali 2. Eder Jofre 3. Carlos Ortiz 4. Fighting Harada 5. Emile Griffith 6. D ick Tiger 7. Nino Benvenuti 8. Vicente Saldivar 9. Luis Rodriguez 10. Bob Foster 11. Jose Napoles?? Ruben Olivares?? It's by no means set in stone but I'm happy with my top 3 in terms of who is there. Certainly I think Ali deserves top 3 but whether he's no. 1 is more debatable. I flitted between him and Jofre for the top spot. I could change my mind on that. Ortiz deserves the 3rd spot on achievement. He might not have been the most talented guy of his era but his record stacks up - beating Joe Brown, Ismael Laguna (twice) and Flash Elorde (twice) is persuasive. Fighting Harada has the best win of the decade in my view and he proved it was no fluke by beating Jofre twice. Winning the flyweight title and then rounding out the decade by nearly winning the featherweight title but for a poor decision means he's easily top 5 and no. 4 felt right. There's not much space between 5 and 9 and these guys could have ranked in a different order as evidenced by Griffith at 5 and Rodriguez at 9, given the closeness of their fights (and many thinking Rodriguez was hard done by with the 1-3 record against Griffith). The last 2 or 3, Foster, Napoles and Olivares get in ahead of other fine fighters because although they won their titles late on in the 60s, they were outstanding contenders prior to getting world title shots and then won the world titles each in spectacular fashion against very good world champions in Tiger, Cokes and Rose respectively. They also went on to be dominant champions in the following decade, even though that shouldn't factor into their ranking within the 60s. EDIT: **** - I missed off D ick Tiger! Have revised. Now Napoles and Olivares just drop outside the top 10.
