chavez all time pound for pound

I have him at #28. A great fighter. But there are other great fighters.

 

People tend to get upset when their favourite fighter is "underated". But there is often a hairs breadth between something like 21 and 27. I love lists because they start debate and you can come to enjoy a fresh perspective, but basically to much air is expelled over certain guys and where they "should" rank.

Here's my HW top 8


1 - Ali, 2 - Louis.

to me there is clear water between these two and the rest, but

3 - Liston, 4 - Lewis, 5 - Johnson 6 - Jeffries 7 - Frazier 8 - Hollyfield

if someone wanted to reshuffle these guys, where is the difference? It's perfectly plausable to swap Lewis and Jeffries on this list without appearing unreasonable.

 

Here you go:

1 - Muhammad Ali
2 - Joe Louis
3 - Sonny Liston
4 - Lennox Lewis
5 - Jack Johnson
6 - Jim Jeffries
7 - Joe Frazier
8 - Evander Hollyfield
9 - Mike Tyson
10-Larry Holmes
11-Jack Dempsey
12-Rocky Marciano
13-George Foreman

It gets a bit squisky after this but something like:

14-Harry Wills
15-Peter Jackson
16-Max Schmeling
17-Riddick Bowe
18-Sam Langford
19-Gene Tunney
20-Jersey Joe Walcott.

Something like that.

My list is based heavily around head to head, I can't help it, but I do make "composite" stabs at all my lists (allowing for achievment, rulesets, resume etc.) - interestingly I think Foreman scores higher on greatness than H2H, but there you go!

Here's my top 30.

1 - Sam Langford
2 - Sugar Ray Robinson
3 - Henry Armstrong
4 - Harry Greb
5 - Ezzard Charles
6 - Willie Pep
7 - Mickey Walker
8 - Archie Moore
9 - Roberto Duran
10-Bob Fitzimmons
11-Muhammad Ali
12-Charley Burley
13-Benny Leonard
14-Joe Louis
15-Sugar Ray Leonard
16-Sandy Saddler
17-Joe Gans
18-Gene Tunney
19-Stanley Ketchel
20-Roy Jones Junior
21-Jimmy Wilde
22-Carlos Monzon
23-Pernell Whitaker
24-Barbados Joe Walcott
25-Tony Canzoneri
26-Barney Ross
27-Emile Griffith
28-Julio Cesar Chavez
29-Jimmy McLarnin
30-Jack Britton

The guys in bold are guys who's position i'm reviewing.

Sticking with Chavez, if we look one place above we have Emile Griffith, one of the greatest WW's of all time who stepped up and beat one of the greatest Middleweight's of all time in Dick Tiger (my #10) - an astonishing achievment. Look at my #30, Britton - this guy was stopped only once in 300 fights (his second as a pro) and dominated in a golden age for his weight class. Yet Chavez is above him. He is in exalted company at #28, I don't see that anyone can "insist" that he should be higher, much less 20 places.

 

I try to spread i around. Ali and Duran are the only out and out modern fighters who make the top ten, but I have Jones at #20 and Hollyfield at #30.

Other active fighters in my 50 were Hopkins (#50) and Mayweather (#40). Be interesting to see how high Mayweather can climb. And I bet beating Calzaghe would see him leap frog a couple of the boys above him.

Not unreasonable, but I think he dominated his era as clearly as anyone and if not for the ill-advised comeback would have gone unbeaten.

I'd also rate him as #1 in terms of chin of all the great HW's, and top 5 in terms of durability.