Gene Fullmer rated No.42 in a list of the greatest fighters in the last 50 years

Gene Fullmer #42 All-Time-Great?

By whom?

This has to be a joke.

 

Too high.

 

I don't have him in the top 200

 

I like Fullmer but I'm not sure he should be on this list. The Ring's explanation also sounds like they don't have much of a reason for placing him there.

Having said that, Fullmer definitely had a great chin and that's a measure of how good a punch Robinson's KO of him was.

 

It's easy for it to become circular logic. It's not just these writers that fell in to the trap. Once the ranker starts favoring a certain era and more fighters are represented, it becomes harder and harder to leave the guys out who were competitive and picked up some wins vs them. The more you include in the first place, the easier it becomes to make the case for adding more- after all, they were picking up wins or lost competitively vs your highly ranked all-time guys. So, the whole era becomes overweighted in the grand scheme of things and a top fighter from a different one winds up on the outside looking in.

Looks to me like that's what happened with Fullmer here. My guess is that other eras of middleweight flat out won't get represented at all because the writers loved that era.

 

I'm clearly not the only who thinks Gene doesn't merit that placement. Don't know if anyone else knows this, but footage from one of the Tiger fights is featured in one of Iggy Pop's music videos, 'American Valhalla'. The song is terrible. It's unfathomable how its the same guy who produced a masterpiece like Funhouse or Raw Power

 

I am a big Fullmer appreciator and love his style...perhaps he is why I was so fond of Hatton???

Anyway I like him and maybe rate him higher than others. I have not compiled a list to contrast with this one but it seems a bit high even for me

 

He may not even be #42 from Utah, his home state.

 

Lol now that is a list I would be interested in seeing and disputing

 

https://www.si.com/vault/1999/12/27/274019/the-50-greatest-sports-figures-from-utah

My bad, he's number 5.

 

Interesting seeing him at 5 and Little Red way down at 29. I wonder who people would rate higher here Danny Lopez or Gene Fullmer...29 is horribly low for Lopez on that list

Edit: how is Shawn Bradley the embarrassment of the pre-process 76ers rated a better athlete than Little Red...embarrassing

 

I think it should be emphasized that this is #42 over a 50 year period, from 1946 to 1996, and not counting anyone before 1946 or after 1996. It still might seem high, but not so high as all time implies.

as for being #5 in Utah, the Ring is only rating boxers, not football or basketball or volleyball players.