Can you name a fighter who holds a better list of top 4 wins?

Sugar Ray Leonard.

He defeated Benitez, Duran, Hearns and Hagler.

All of them in or around their pomp when he fought them.

Hagler fight was obviously contentious and Leonards earlier loss to Duran should be taken into account.

Thoughts?

 

I can't find wins for Holly against either Blackburn or Gans,,so I don't think his record is superior to Greb's wins over Tunney,Loughran,Walker,Gibbons.Holly must have been some fighter to beat Langford and Walcott but I would need positive proof about his fights against the others mentioned.

 

Leonard is definitely up there.

 

For me that's probably the four best wins, because the Duran, Benitez, Hearns and Hagler were not only all great fighters but stylistically very different from each other. To outbox Benitez, overwhelm Hearns and frustrate Duran and Hagler - not many can claim to have done something similar.

 

I know it seems a cliche choice, but Ray Robinson is a choice: Randy Turpin, Gene Fullmer, Jake LaMotta, and Bobo Olsen, with Henry Armstrong or Angott as alternates.

 

None of these choices are as good as the original though, and that includes Leonard, who is usually everyone's (including myself) choice when it comes to top wins on a fighter's resume.

Langford, Walcott, and Gans are all arguably top 20 ATG's, with Blackburn being incredibly underrated himself and in that same general grouping for that era.

 

Jones' 4 wins, 2 of them are a bit of a joke, McCallum was 40 and fat, and Trinidad was retired.

 

Pacman.

Barrera, Morales, JMM and De La Hoya

3 bona fide hall of famers and another who'll most probably end up there.

Admittatidly Barrera was a shot fighter in their second fight.
Morales had seen better days in the third fight.
JMM may have won the second fight and then there's the question marks over Oscar.

Possibly a little to early to submit Pacman for consideration but in time that list will stand with pretty much any other boxer you care to mention.

 

You can't find records of those wins because they were fought in the days of no Decisions and Newspaper decisions (which I'm sure you know), though at least a couple of those fights between them are supposed to have been rather clear for Holly.

 

I am reading the biography on Sam Langford right now. Its a shame on how many great fighters we have never heard of, ie. Holly. Before reading this book I would not have had a clue who he was, or even how great a fighter Jack Blackburn (Joe Louis' trainer) was. Excellent post Sweet Pea.