Boxers who achieved ATG status in their pre-prime stage!!!

Yeah, Tyson's a good shout.

 

Robinson was beating world class opposition regularly by his 21st.

 

Ezzard Charles had not been 22 long and had beaten Maxim, Burley twice, Overlin (underrated), Christoforidis, Mamakos and Yarosz

 

Looking back, we know Morales peak was at 122 but he was known simply as a top young exciting p4p guy with almost definitely a great future at that time, he was only accepted as a true ATG after many a war thru 3 weight divisions as only JCC had won titles in 3 weights before Erik did it (from Mexico obviously)

He is certainly a 122 lb legend, one of the absolute best that ever lived, no doubt.

 

:good

 

Noone yet mentioned in this thread, including Sanchez and Benitez. They simply started young and hit their primes young. Duran and Pacquiao are probably the best calls. Definitely Duran, not certain about Pacquiao though.

 

I'd definitely say Charles had achieved greatness before he 'peaked' though. He has some resume as i say, before he maybe entered his few years of best form. Very tight though.

 

Here's some devil's advocate-

Bernard Hopkins!

 

Stanley Ketchel

 

Roy Jones Jr. maybe?

Oscar de la Hoya? quite debatable though

 

I'd say McLarnin has been the best choice so far. He had wins over LaBarba (Olympic medalist) and Villa (reigning champ), among others, well before he hit his peak.

Unless I missed it, I'm surprised to see no one has mentioned SAM LANGFORD, who whupped a peak Joe Gans only a couple years into his known pro career, and not long after that was credited by many with getting the better of another established ATG and reigning champ in Walcott.

Azumah Nelson could be appropriate here as well. He gave Sanchez all he could handle and then completely dominated Wilfredo Gomez was still relatively early in his career.

 

Agreed. As much as those two are genuine ATGs just from what they actually did, I think they get somewhat overrated when people raise their rankings based on what they "would've" done.

 

But Villa had already proved himself capable of handling full fledged featherweights, and was assuredly an atg, while McLarnin was still an inexperienced 19 year old, so the win's valid and your point is not.

 

What separates Tyson and Ali among many things is that Tyson in the 80s was greater than Ali in the 60s. However Ali in the 70s was greater than Tyson in the 90s.

This matters because the quality of competition in the 70s and 90s are amongst the best. Whereas the 60s and 80s were not as deep. These days most people attribute Ali's greatness to the 70s whereas Tyson's shortcomings took place in the 90s.

As for the OP

Salvador Sanchez.