Did so for the longest period of time? Some fighters have a lot of fluff on their records. Others, little to none. A little over two years into his career in 1970, Roberto Duran was fighting legends like Ernesto Marcel... 31 years later he was still in the ring against competition the level of Hector Camacho. Who've you got?
Holyfield beat Qawi and won the WBA cruiserweight belt in his 12th fight, so guess you could say pretty much his entire career was against World class opposition.
Holyfield's a great pick here. Many Olympic fighters get extremely fast starts professionally. Almost every member of the Olympic boxing team that year had a fast start.
To go with the Olympian route, Pernell Whitaker fought respectable journeyman Alfedo Layne in his 11th pro fight, and then Roger Mayweather in his 12th, Ramirez in his 15th fight, and from then on was up against all world class fighters. Ezzard Charles fought Ken Overlin a year into his pro career, and had fought Joey Maxim twice after 2 years, he then went to war in '43 until '46 and within a year after coming back from service he had beaten Archie Moore all 3 times.
Langford fought Gans a lightweight great in 1903 and Tiger Flowers a middleweight great 1922 and he beat Flowers and got a newspaper decision against Gans.
Chuvalo was a contender in three different decades. Pretty remarkable, considering his skillset/ability was good, but nothing compared to, say, Holyfield.
Ali had fought the likes of Moore,Cooper,Doug Jones and Liston barely twenty fights and three years into his career and was still fighting quality fighters two decades later. I'd say Ali competed at a genuine world level longer than nearly anyone.
Ted 'Kid' Lewis is a fine example of longevity. 1909-1929. Perhaps the career of George Carpentier is the only one on par with Lewis until the 1930s in Europe. Fighting from Featherweight up to Heavyweight in pusuing European titles, he amassed a fantastic record, including the World Welterweight crown on 2 occassions.
Absolutely. He may be the finest exponent of the Art coming from France. Marcel Cerdan being a close second.... Carpentier battled from the French Welter title-the World H/W title. Both the careers of Lewis and Carpentier are sensational. Carpentier is a totally nostaligic charactor.. Well and truly embedded in the record books.
