Charley Rose's top 10 Lightweights of all time, October, 1968

Blackburn at 3 is fine. The man was an ATG. Absolutely. I have more problems with other picks than the Blackburn pick. Mendoza, why do you have to single Blackburn out like that? Blackburn was a highly tooled fighter. No one wanted a part of the guy. He beat some very good comp too.

 

Charley Rose handled dozens of top fighters and witnessed thousands more!

he had vested interested in American fighters first, then Brits and then he took an interest in Mexican and South American fighters, he was among the first people to argue the obsession with the heavyweights and sought out the never ending talent among smaller fighters, again his eventual interest in Mexican and South American fighters, he knew Top Talent and Elite fighters when he saw them.

his mention of LEACH CROSS is a classic example of just how good these top fighters really were, whether we know much about them or not.

Charlie Rose's lists are still sited today, because Boxing was his business and his life, he was one of the experts, and even though we can't all agree with someones Top 10, simply because lists are hard to be totally acurate, I mean 10 or even 25 fighters out of 150 year history, and thousands of fighters per division is impossible to include all of the very best, IT WON'T BE 100% ACCURATE.

But the point is Charlie Rose among a few other Boxing men KNEW THE SCORE and if they sited a fighter then that fighter was for real!!!

 

Is there any reason why Langford should definitely not have been regarded as #1 at the time ?

I thought it was more of less consensus from those who knew about Sam, that Langford deserved mention in the same category as Johnson, Louis and Dempsey.

 

I couldn't agree with you more!