Anyone here has him on their all time P4P lists? I mean... Back to back wins against Burley, three wins against Moore. That alone should put him pretty high up there.
I've never had a consistent pound-for-pound list. The few times I've tried to compile one, though, Charles has placed, I believe, around 7-14, but he could easily be higher. His world-elite success and multiple victories over Hall-of-Famers in three different weight classes makes a very strong case for ranking him about as high as you want pound-for-pound.
You fellas are all probably well aware of this, but the only fight footage of Burley, his match with the heavier Oakland Billy Smith, is on Youtube (i've added the link for part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4IsZxqeJos
As I say, I've never had a consistent one. I don't have the last one I made saved somewhere. I think I typed it up on here before we last lost the posts. It was something like this: 1. Robinson 2. Armstrong 3. Greb 4. Duran 5. Ali 6. Pep 7. Louis 8. Langford 9. Moore 10. Monzon 11. Charles 12. Marciano 13. Hagler 14. Saddler 15. Wilde Thing is, I consider most of the fighters on that list reasonably interchangeable with each other, and a bunch of fighters who aren't there could easily be on it. In fact, a mild discussion with a few of the knowledgeable members of this site would probably lead me to make some immediate alterations. Pound-for-pound lists seem very shaky and debatable to me.
Ali's waaaaay too high on there. One of the greatest HW's ever, but not quite so great on a P4P list. Monzon as a MW for example had more fights, basically fought just as many high end fighters and won more convincingly than Ali did in many of his fights, more defenses of his title... That kind of thing.
I agree Sweetpea, I believe Ali P4P1 is defensible. 1 )A while ago I did a thread on lopsided punchstats. Ali came out on top with 33-fold more punches over Wlliams over 3 rounds, beating all boxers in history from any weight class. If anyone can find something more lopsided, please let me know. Ali Williams is also the most graceful display of boxing I have ever seen, from any weight class. 2) The Foreman match is the greatest display of ring generalship and psychological warfare I have ever seen against a prime ATG. 3) The third Frazier fight is one of the bravest winning performances ever, in terms of outlasting a robust, determined ATG in a pure war of attrition. With these factors melded into a single fighter, it is not difficult to place him on the number 1 pedestal, IMO.
Charles is on my LB 4 LB list which I have to put together again, He was heavyweight Champ, would have Dominated the Lightheavys or Cruziers in any era but as a Heavy I rate him below top 10 but on the LB 4 LB, I put him up there with Langford,SSR,Pep,Duran,Sanchez,Marciano(188lbs)Armstrong,Canzanari,Benny Leonard,Walker,Greb,SRL
I have him top ten now. He wrecked my whole list because I used to have him at 11 but that isn't defendable in my view.