A first draft: My hundred greatest boxers of all time, p4p

That feels kind of counter intuitive to me, I think i'd end up pandering.

Much happier this way, setting it up to be shot at by some smart guys who aren't that much smarter than me (if at all ) and editing/arguing/defending/changing, whatever it may prove to be.

 

I think Amstrong outside a top 5 is mad, but anything inside is OK with me. He's certianly a candidate for #1 - I think anyone in this top 4 is.

Napoles is a great fighter, but one I feel is generally overated. I'm happy with his placing - in his "zone" are guys like Conn, Hearns, Jack Dempsey (MW) - surely he's not inately superior to these men?

Duran can't be outside the top 10. Stonehands goes mental.

Fitz, all time great puncher with ranking cudos from MW to HW - not a lock for the top 10, but a fighter who belongs there or thereabouts.

 

Funny you should say this, because I very much wanted to get Buchanan onto the list. It's perhaps the case that I have been too hard on him in an effort to avoid bias...but I do think that the Duran win gives DeJesus the edge here.

Foreman: :scaredas:

Liston: In my opinion is a better fighter than almost every heavyweight there ever was. He's the third heavyweight to appear on my HW list, and the third heavyweight to appear on this list, happily - although he's a bit further behind Louis here than on the HW list, if you understand what I mean.

Holmes: I have Holmes lower than most on my HW list and am aware of the fact - poor competition, the Spinks thing makes me suspicious and I think he is generally overated by the community at large. Tyson was very nearly my 100 - he's better, p4p, than Holmes in my opinion.

 

You're the second guy to mention Camacho as overated here so I'll take serious note of that - I've always enjoyed him and always felt that he was a special fighter when comited. But fair enough.

You mention some cracking fighters here, and in a second hundred they'd be locks, but as you say - limited space.

This covers your interesting McAuliffe shout to HJ?

 

Briefly:

Dick Tiger is, I think, the greatest punching MW of them all. I am consistantly impressed by him in all avenues. He looks proper in all the footage I have seen, has great, great wins at LHW, an awkward weight for him and dominated great physical fighters with his own physicality at 160 (Giardello, Fulmer, Carter) which pretty much means he can't be outpunched/muscled at the weight. His only weakness was with pure boxers - and he beat a couple.

I also admire his will and drive. Let's not forget, he rose to become the greatest fighter Africa has ever produced after having been considered little more than an "opponent" for a number of years.

Eddie Booker is obviously a fighter I have never seen. I'm forced, then, to use second hand accounts to form my opinion. Moore called him the best fighter he ever fought - high praise indeed - and Booker fought from Middle to Heavy without being stopped.

He beat Moore of course, as well as guys like Williams, Hogue and although he dropped a few, Booker had the kind of luck that I feel makes this excusable. A great fighter, perhaps one of the most underated of all time

Billy Smith beat Walcott, McCoy, Lavigne, Maber etc., is twice WW champ (17 fight unbeaten streak during his second turn according to some). He seems a special talent happy to mix in top company on multipe occasions, ducking nobody. He's a proper nut, and I like that. I don't think he is placed to high here, although I have actually moved him down a couple of slots.

Holyfield is a lock for my HW top 15, not enough to get him up to that slot of course, but he is also undoubtedly #1 in the Cruiser division, lineal champ in both, I believe. I'm happy with his placement.

Ketchel is one of the greatest punchers to ever fight, it seems, but that alone wouldn't do. Unbeaten middlweight champ with more defences than any other middleweight champ is what gets him onto this list - the series of duels with O'Brien and Papke plus the drawn bought with my choice for the greatest of all time is the thing that sees him riding so high.

Jones is a sublime athlete, the most extraordinarly gifted fighter captured on film - he holds belts from Middle to Heavy to help describe this brilliance. I'm happy with Roy at 20.

Holmes misses out by 20-30 spots, Mayweather rides high at 39, Oscar is at 72

Thanks.

 

Cheers dude.

Some of these narrowly missed out (Trinidad, Young Griffo) some of them made it (Dixon is at 31 ), some of them didn't get the consideration they deserve perhaps (Tendler, Giardello) and i'll look again...how about firming it up for me, pick the 3-6 you'd most like to see on any list.