Greatest Light Heavyweight (175lbs) of all time (based on achievements NOT H2H)

Gazelle Punch · May 8, 2026

Answer is Charles but he’s not available so Archie. Then Tunney or Harold Johnson.

Gazelle Punch · May 8, 2026

Ioakeim Tzortzakis said: ↑

Alright, let's just get this over with. If we can't say Charles is the GOAT for beating Moore because there are other champions with GOAT cases aside from Moore, then I just have to prove that there aren't. Greb and Tunney were not champions, they only held regional titles, so they won't be included as they supposedly can't be the GOATs due to that according to Devon. So let's see how other LHW champs compare to Moore. Warning, this post is too long for the Tiktok generation. You are advised to proceed with caution.

Spinks: wins over top 10 ranked Light heavyweights consists of Qawi, Eddie, Pops, Lopez, Suttherland, Davis, Rivadenerya, Calestine, Wassajja and Johnson. So he is 10-0 over fighters who were ranked at one point in their life. And it should be noted that about half of them weren't at the time of the Spinks fight. Underwhelming depth, but his best victories are great.

Loughran: Undefeated vs Slattery, Walker, Carpentier, Lomski, Burke x2, Marullo x3, Okun x2, Sekyra, Latzo x2, Emanuel x2 and Maier. He is 3-1 vs McTigue, 1-4-1 vs Greb, 0-1 vs Tunney, 1-2 vs Stribling, 1-1-1 vs Stone and 0-1-2 vs the Delaneys. So he is 23-10-1 against fighters that were top 10 ranked at the poundage, having secured some great victories over Slattery, Stribling, a smaller but still elite Walker and of the course the great Harry Greb. He is 7-0 in title matches with 6 successful defences. But he never established that he was better than his 2 best opponents (Being 1-5-1 total against Greb and Tunney) and despite being very dominant over his average ranked opponent, he also lost the series to Stribling and had trouble against the 2 Delaneys, ending up with a record of 0-2-1 against them.

Lewis: Undefeated against Jack Fox x1, McAvoy x1, Olin x3, Nichols x1, Harvey x2, Shucco x2, Lenhart x1, Scoza x1, Okun x2, Godwin x1, Gainer x2. His blemishes include minor draws against Nichols and Lenhart, and him losing the series to the great Rosenbloom by 2-3. Very impressive.

Foster: wins Tiger x1, Hank x2, Cotton x1, Quarry x1, Finnegan x1, Rouse x2, Fourrie x2, Kelly x1, Tessman x1, Anderson x1, Kendall x1, Carrol x1 and Rondon x1. Early losses to Jones and Mina, as well as a draw to Ahumada when close to his prime. Incredible dominance and solid depth, but over very unispiring opposition. Not a GOAT candidate.

Jones: 40 year old McCallum, Griffin, Hill, Tarver, Talle, Johnson, Telesco, Harding, Harmon, Gonzalez, Woods. So 11-0 in his prime, but also lost to Tarver x2, Glen Johnson and Calzaghe. But he was obviously very past it after the first Tarver KO. Impressive for sure, but not GOAT worthy.

Johnson: Hall x2, Bivins, Lytell, Cotton, Morrow, Satterfield, Jones, Slade x2, old Doc Williams, Andrews x2, Ray, Clay, Bowdry, Scholz, Hank, Stengel when Johnson was 40 and of course a win over Moore himself. He is even at 1-1 with Satterfield and suffered only 1 freak loss to Oakland Billy Smith and a SD to Pastrano when he was way past his prime. Incredible right ? Consider he is also Archie Moore's 4 time *****.

Conn: Undefeated over Actis, Bettina x2 and Lesnevich x2, an impressive 5-0 but not ATG worthy even. P4P great for sure, but it's mostly due to his overall record rather than particular achievements at any weight. I say that as a big Conn admirer.

Qawi: Saad x2, Rossman, Davies, Scott, Martin and lost the fight to the generational best (Spinks). Impressive for sure, but not GOAT worthy.

Saad: Conteh x2, Lopez x2, Pops x2, Mwale x1, Martin x1, Sutherland x1, 1-0-1 with Parlov, 1-1 with Camel. Lost to the best he fought (Eddie and twice vs Qawi). All time great, but not GOAT worthy.

Beterbiev (lol): Undefeated vs Bivol (highly disputed), Gvozdyck, Smith, Smith jr, Yarde and Browne. A total of 6 ranked wins (should be 5-1). ''He iS a tOp TeN AlL tImE gReAt ThOuGh''

Let's finally get to Moore: Harold Johnson x4, Jimmy Bivins, Lloyd Marshall x2, Joey Maxim x3 and countless other top 10 rated LHW's like Jimmy Slade, Jack Chase, Oakland Billy Smith x3, Bert Lytell x2, Bob Satterfield, Henry Hall, Charley Williams x3, Leonard Morrow, Nate Bolden x2, Yolande Pompey, Yvon Durelle x2, Eddie Cotton, Tony Anthony and Gulio Rinaldi.That's 31 victories over men in the top 10 at LHW (don't get me started on his whole resume), all of them in or close to their prime.

But wait, it gets better. He's simultaneously the oldest and longest reigning Light Heavyweight champion, and holds the record for most lineal title defences to this day. Let's also look at his losses at 175 against ranked opposition, shall we ? A freak KO loss to Morrow (avenged), a decision loss to Hall (avenged), a decision loss to Harold Johnson (his 4 time *****) and a decision loss to Rinaldi at 46 years old (avenged). He also drew once with Oakland Billy Smith (who he has beaten 3 times) and Jack Chase (same thing). One good look will tell you the vast majority of his blemishes came when at Middleweight. So particularly at LHW, he has a record of 31-4-2 against ranked fighters, with ALL the losses and draws avenged. So not only does he have the best record against ranked fighters, not only does he have the best wins over the best opponents, not only is he the oldest and longest reigning champ with the lineal title defences record, but he never met a LHW he couldn't inevitably beat.

Except Ezzard Charles. Charles 10-0'd him in their first fight, beat him close but clear the second time around, and knocked him out the third time. Whatever Moore did, he could not prove he was superior to Charles. It's also not that Charles only has Moore on his resume. He has wins over Marshall x2, Bivins x1 (or 4 if you believe Bivins to merely be a blown up LHW, due to him weighing at the early 180's at HW), Maxim x5, Christoforidis x1, Fitzpatrick x2, and Oakland Billy Smith x2. So he is 16-2 (with the Marshall loss being due to an injury and the other being due to Bivins being a division heavier) at the weight against arguably the best overall opposition in the division's history.

Ezzard Charles is the GOAT Light Heavyweight.
Click to expand...

This is a top five post ever for me. lol well done. I put Charles and Archie as the 1a and 1b

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Greatest Light Heavyweight (175lbs) of all time (based on achievements NOT H2H)

Who had the greatest legacy at 175lbs of all time?

Michael Spinks

Archie Moore

Bob Foster

Artur Beterbiev

Harold Johnson

Billy Conn

Dwight Muhammad Qawi

Roy Jones Jr.

Matthew Saad Muhammad

Gene Tunney

Gazelle Punch Boxing Junkie Full Member

Gazelle Punch Boxing Junkie Full Member

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Greatest Light Heavyweight (175lbs) of all time (based on achievements NOT H2H)

Who had the greatest legacy at 175lbs of all time?

Michael Spinks

Archie Moore

Bob Foster

Artur Beterbiev

Harold Johnson

Billy Conn

Dwight Muhammad Qawi

Roy Jones Jr.

Matthew Saad Muhammad

Gene Tunney

Gazelle Punch Boxing Junkie Full Member

Gazelle Punch Boxing Junkie Full Member