Fights where the two best fighters in the world squared off

Yes, sorry.

 

Ali-Frazier 1

 

Marciano and Moore in 1955---Robinson was on a comeback but was not quite the fighter he had been 3 or 4 years earlier.

 

Greb vs. Tunney?

 

How about:

Charles-Louis

Charles-Moore

Moore-Maxim (Maxim was fresh of beating SRR and Charles had just lost twice but Charles had beat Maxim a year or 2 previous so this is contentious at best not to mention Marciano must have been highly rated at this stage)

SRR-Galivan 2 - this is a push, but Galivan had arguably beaten Mr P4P SRR in the first fight then beat Ike Williams twice

 

With hindsight maybe Robinson/GavilanII; Duran/Buchanan; Leonard/DuranI; Chavez/TaylorI; Whitaker/Chavez and arguably Jones/Toney although Sweet Pea still had a lot going for him.

And at the time thought to of been #1 and #2: Chavez/TaylorI and Whitaker/Chavez

Pound for pound listings did not really take off until the late 80s/early 90s, thus the reason the without hindsight list is so small.

 

michael nunn could argue it, although he looked bad against barkley.

 

I don't see how Charles-Louis or Charles-Moore qualify. Robinson had to be considered a better p4p fighter than Moore in 1948, or than a comebacking Louis in 1950.

Maxim just does not cut it. Was he better than Gavilan? or Saddler?

SRR and Gavilan 2 is probably the best try here, but Gavilan was just coming along. I don't think many would have viewed him as better at this point than Charles or Pep.

 

What about Tyson-Spinks. Tyson was considered by many to be the an all time great heavy and unified the title like no one before. Spinks was considered by many to be the greatest ever light heavy champion, had just beat an all time great heavyweight cham in Larry Holmes and was the 'lineal' champion.

 

How high was leonard rated before montreal, i'm pretty sure duran was no1 p4 at the time but was leonard rated 2 or had he not quite climed that high

Or maybe monzon v napoles

 

Schultz-Botha.

 

Gans vs Barbados Joe Walcott
Nat Fleischer called them the best lightweight and welterweight, respectively, in history.

 

You may have been right. The Rings rankings as of Sept 18th 1997, after the DLH/Whitaker fight was:

1. ODLH
2. RJJ
3. Whitaker
4. Trinidad

 

It that was the case, yes it would be lame. Unfortunately we don't know for sure how the rest of the "staff" felt about the fight.

However, I would think that it wasn't a majority that felt that way since they put Whitaker above Chavez despite the official result being a draw, which was the right thing to do.