The aim of this is to have a bit of fun, debate my decade picks and explore my contention that for the most part a lot of the decades when compared with the previous and following ones are pretty even, no dramatic improvement as some people have it. there are exceptions as we shall see also. It is important to note the criteria I used. A fighter is rated in only one decade, the one I felt he did his best work. However, his rating is based on his overall body of work, not what he accomplished in that decade. Obviously, some fighters eg Ali, Johnson, Foreman etc straddled several decades and my selection of their best decade is arbitrary but I feel not overly important. Here's the first 6 of 13. 1888-1897 fitz corbett jackson maher goddard slavin choynski kilrain mcauliff godfrey 1898-1907 jeffries sharkey burns hart mccoy ruhlin o'brien gardner root flynn 1908-1917 johnson langford mcvea jeanette willard clark mccarty smith moran coffey 1918-1927 dempsey tunney wills godfrey gibbons fulton norfolk miske firpo Stribling 1928-1937 Schmeling Sharkey Baer Loughran Carnera Braddock schaaf Hamas Farr godoy 1938-1947 louis walcott conn bivins pastor ray murray thompson sheppard nova
As an example i have the 1887 lot winning over the next decade, Corbett, Jackson, Maher, Slavin, Choynski, and Godfrey as winners. I then have the 1898 group losing 6-4 to the 1908 selection but lots of close, debateable calls; Burns, O'Brien, Root and Flynn as winners.
Is it fair to assume you only listing a name once? Fitz, for example, could rate in more than one timeline.
