Boxers who were more known fighting at a different weight class from their prime

Thoams Hearns...Prime ww, despite winning titles at SWW, MD, LHVT and CRUZ...most notable for loss to hagler at Middleweight

 

Maybe SRL. Good wins over Duran and Hearns at 147, but I think coming back off a near 5 year layoff to (possibly) out-point a past prime MW Hagler is bound to come up in any conversation about his career.

I'd also argue that 154 was Hearns' prime, not Welter. He was only 22-ish when he left the Welterweight division, mostly because of he was weight-drained against Leonard. If only for his 2 round destruction of Duran, I think 154 was his prime.

 

Robinson for sure. The thing is... I think he could have beat most MWs ever. I'm not talking about the version of Robinson who lost to Turpin, Basilio, Fullmer, etc.

Robinson turned pro in 1940 and by 1942 he was fighting MWs. Robinson fought plenty of MWs prior to his loss to Turpin. He didn't fight the big name MWs until he was past prime, sadly this is what people remember most. Robinson actually went 62-1-2 (42) 1NC overall at MW and 5-0 (4) in MW World Title fights prior to his first fight with Turpin in 1951.

The only loss in his first 132 pro fights was a close decision loss to Lamotta. Robinson was 144 1/2 and Lamotta was 160 1/2 fo the fight. He went 5-1 (1) vs. Lamotta lifetime though. He was 128-1-2 1NC... 62-1-2 NC at MW and 66-0 at WW and LW combined. He beat both of the fighters he drew with.

After all of this he went on to fight Graziano, Maxim (for the LHW World Title), Fullmer x4, Basilio x2, and plenty of others that he wouldn't have lost to in his prime.

Robinson vs. Hagler? I'll take Robinson in a close fight.

 

bert cooper

 

I think that Spinks was already widely known from his light-heavy achievements.

 

how is floyd's prime at 130 when he is as big as the biggest 147 pounders and bullying a guy that fits well at 154?

that's floyd perfect weight, i doubt he could even make 130 seeing the results of the marquez fight

 

:rofl:rofl:rofl

 

your boy abraham got owned, so much for you knowing anything about boxing

 

:smooch

 

Holyfield went 18-0 (14) overall and 6-0 (5) in World Title Fights at Cruiserweight. He is an all-time great at HW as well... but at CW he was simply amazing.

Had he stayed at CW, we would have missed some good HW fights, but he would have ruled undefeated for a long time IMO.

He won his first CW belt in 1986 in just his 12th pro fight. He beat Hall of Famer Dwight Qawi (W15) in this fight. He stoped Qawi in 4 in their rematch. He went on to beat CW Champs O. Ocasio, R. Parkey, and C. DeLeon. Had he stayed he would have most likely prevented most if not all of these guys from winning World Title belts at CW-

WBC- Massimiliano Duran, Anaclet Wamba, Marcelo Dominguez, Juan Gomez, Wayne Braithwaite, Jean Mormeck, O'Neil Bell, David Haye.

WBA- Taoufik Belbouli, Robert Daniels, Bobby Czyz, Orlin Norris, Nate Miller, Fabrice Tiozzo, Virgil Hill

IBF- Glenn McCrory, Jeff Lampkin, James Warring, Al Cole, Adolpho Washington, Uriah Grant, Imamu Mayfield, Arthur Williams, Vassiliy Jirov, James Toney, Kelvin Davis, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, Steve Cunningham, Tomasz Adamek

WBO- Boone Pultz, Magne Havnaa, Markus Bott, Nestor Giovannini, Dariusz Michalczewski, Ralf Rocchigiani, Carl Thompson, Johnny Nelson, Enzo Maccarinelli

 

Well im glad im the first one to mention Napoloes, he was the first one i thought of and as iwent through the pages i thought someone would beat me to him.

ANyways Napoloes was an awesome lightweight and according to some of my knowledgeable old time buddies Napoloes might have beat a young Duran had he hung around.

Now im not one to quickly agree with that one but :think:think

 

David Haye

 

I followed Barreras early career when he was fighting at the forum. He was an awesome Junior Bantam and Bantam if he wasnt so avoided he would have won titles in 5 weight clases but he was avoided in fact he had connections to get those shots but the champs refused to fight him, if he would have got the chance, this would have even put him on higher greatness than where he is at currently. No doubt he would have won titles those weight classes he was a beast even at 18 to 20 he would have been a dominant champ before moving up.