Simple enough premise. This is an attempt to create a p4p list of the best 100 fighters of the last 100 years - Jan 1st 1920- Dec 31st 2019. The cut off for completing this list is the end of 2019. Criteria: Any fighter who fought from 1888 up to 1919 is excluded. This automatically excludes the likes of Joe Gans, Barbados Joe Walcott, Stanley Ketchel and Bob Fitzsimmons. For great fighters whose careers overlapped eras, they can only be judged on their work from 1920 onwards - so Benny Leonard and Harry Greb are creditable but only for their work from 1920 onwards, not before. Active fighters are also open to be included, so Oleksandr Usyk and Vasyl Lomachenko, for example, can make the list just the same as legends of the past if it's deemed warranted. Approach: Currently, there are 135 names on the long list. Please suggest any names you think are missing from the existing long list I've started. I'll add them but 200 names is the cut off. Somehow from that, I need to wittle this down to 100 fighters. Then I need to rank them in some semblance of an order. I have decided to construct the list by division first to help organise it. Once refined, I expect there to be 8-10 fighters per original 8 weight divisions plus a small number (2-3) in the junior divisions. For fighters whose greatness wasn't defined by work in any one individual weight class and was based on spanning the divisions, there a few spots available. The divisional order is arbitrary and came as each name occurred to me. No fighter has been repeated so I have found a location for them inside one of the weight divisions that they competed in.
THE LONG LIST (so far) Heavyweight: Muhammad Ali Joe Louis Larry Holmes Rocky Marciano Jack Dempsey George Foreman Joe Frazier Mike Tyson Lennox Lewis Ezzard Charles Sonny Liston Harry Wills Cruiserweight: Oleksandr Usyk Evander Holyfield Light heavyweight: Archie Moore Maxie Rosenbloom Tommy Loughran Gene Tunney Billy Conn Harold Johnson Bob Foster Michael Spinks Lloyd Marshall Victor Galindez Matthew Saad Muhammad John Henry Lewis Jimmy Bivins Super middleweight: Roy Jones James Toney Andre Ward Joe Calzaghe Middleweight: Harry Greb Sugar Ray Robinson Carlos Monzon Marvin Hagler Bernard Hopkins Mickey Walker Tony Zale Jake LaMotta Charley Burley Holman Williams Freddie Steele Dick Tiger Nino Benvenuti Marcel Cerdan Saul Alvarez Gennady Golovkin Jnr Middleweight: Mike McCallum Terry Norris Wilfred Benitez Winky Wright Julian Jackson Julio Cesar Vasquez Welterweight: Sugar Ray Leonard Jose Napoles Henry Armstrong Kid Gavilan Emile Griffith Barney Ross Thomas Hearns Luis Rodriguez Carmen Basilio Jimmy McLarnin Curtis Cokes Felix Trinidad Fritzie Zivic Jnr Welterweight: Julio Cesar Chavez Antonio Cervantes Aaron Pryor Niccolino Locche Kostya Tszyu Miguel Cotto Lightweight: Benny Leonard Roberto Duran Ike Williams Carlos Ortiz Tony Canzoneri Lou Ambers Pernell Whitaker Joe Brown Bob Montgomery Beau Jack Ismael Laguna Ken Buchanan Oscar De La Hoya Shane Mosley Jnr Lightweight: Kid Chocolate Flash Elorde Azumah Nelson Floyd Mayweather Jnr Manny Pacquiao Featherweight: Baby Arizmendi Willie Pep Sandy Saddler Vicente Saldivar Salvador Sanchez Eusebio Pedroza Ernesto Marcel Alexis Arguello Johnny Kilbane Juan Manuel Marquez Vasyl Lomachenko Jnr Featherweight: Wilfredo Gomez Jeff Fenech Erik Morales Marco Antonio Barrera Israel Vasquez Bantamweight: Eder Jofre Ruben Olivares Manuel Ortiz Al Brown Fighting Harada Rafael Herrera Carlos Zarate Rafael Marquez Lionel Rose Jnr Bantamweight: Gilberto Roman Khaosai Galaxy Jiro Watanabe Sun Kil Moon Johnny Tapia Flyweight: Jimmy Wilde Pancho Villa Pascual Perez Miguel Canto Midget Wolgast Frankie Gennaro Benny Lynch Fidel LaBarba Betulio Gonzalez Masao Ohba Santos Laciar Jnr Flyweight: Hilario Zapata Jung Koo Chang Myung Woo Yuh Michael Carbajal Chiquita Gonzalez Ivan Calderon Strawweight: Ricardo Lopez Roman Gonzalez
Any dialogue that includes Walker and Steele is a major discussion point that I am curious to see where it goes lol. looks solid at a glance, although I don’t see that many HW’s making the final cut. I will take a deeper look later on.
Great list. Can't imagine how long it took to make. How come Gonzalez for Straw and not light fly or fly? Do you rate him higher H2H there? And no Yuh at LFly?
And would you consider someone like Marcel for Featherweight? He does have wins over Arguello, Antonio Gomez etc.
Also (another one!) no Pancho Villa? He got his best work, including beating Wilde for the title, in the early 1920s.
Thanks man. I did it on the train to work yesterday and today. In terms of Gonzalez, that was just a balance thing through the weight divisions rather than a preference for his work in one particular division. He had to go somewhere and I already had 5 light-flyweights. That was the only reason. Not an exact science at this point and weight division is not how the final list will be organised. I’ll happily add Yuh though. Thanks!
Very good list, Jel. It may be splitting hairs a bit, but, I would put Julian Jackson (and possibly Julio Cesar Vasquez) ahead of both Terry Norris and Winky Wright at Junior Middleweight.
Thanks. It's definitely arguable in Jackson's case as he obviously beat Norris in style there. Both have a claim though so I'll put them in. I don't honestly expect them to make the final 100 but in that division they have a case.
