Greatest Of All Time In More Than 1 Weight Class?

Yeah Fitz his handling of bigger men was out of tis world To me Bob knocking out guys 30 40 is heavier is way more impressive then Dempsey or Louis doing it

 

Tommy Ryan had a decent claim at both welterweigth and midleweight, as Robinson would later. Perhaps we should be comparing them more.

 

Langford, Greb, Armstrong and Robinson

Maybe Fitzsimmons, Ketchel

 

I havent seen this weight claim before. I have seen photos of Fitz after his retirement where he was said to be 200 plus pounds and he carries it very well.

The time you are talking about was just after the second Fitz Jeffries fight, i presume. If true, this is very interesting. Despite Fitz' astonishing KO record, most people say he is simply too small to compete with or have teh power of modern fighters. I understand Pollack's biography indicates that he actually weighed in heavier than what he was prepared to let on.

If fitz was capable of carrying 200lbs plus, he wouldnt be too small for modern fighters. And if it might suggest also if he wanted to he could use modern 'enhancements' he would dramatically change his head to head heavyweight ranking.

In relation to the question of this thread, it is a tough question. with a legitimate yes no answer. At his date of retirement, i think that Fitz had a good claim to being the legitimate greatest at 3 weights, though the heavy claim was a little tenuous, with Jackson, Sullivan and Jeffries all with likely better claims. However, by now, he has lost the Heavy claim. He could claim the light heavy crown only if you consider work he did before the division existed and/or while he was weighing in as a light heavy but his opponent was much bigger. Once you do this, he becomes a certainty to have a decent claim in more than one class. His record at middleweight and Super middleweight are undeniable, to add that to his light heavy accomplishments and his claim as a cruiserweight is certainly realistic with wins over some good fighters. If you rank head to head, His victory over Jack Dempsey at 150 would have to also give him a claim as a light middleweight as well.

 

I think Fitzsimmons' reported weights are suspect too.
But that's only in his heavyweight fights.

At middleweight he had to weigh in, and I assume he had his opponents managers checking everything was legit.
I seem to remember he raised the limit from 154 to 158, perhaps he dictated an early weigh in too.
Even so, he was 156 1/2 as late as 1894 when he defended the middleweight title against Dan Creedon.

 

Thomas Hearns....the best ever at LM weight...great at LH Weight

 

Donaire would be the favorite vs anyone at 112, 115 or 118

 

The 3rd encounter at 180+ is / was meaningless both then and now. All I'll say about the scoring in the second bout by 2 of the Murican judges didn't reflect what ocurred in the fight. The first fight could have gone either way.

 

A good thread which has been ruined by alphabet champions (I've lost count) and new weight divisions every 5-6 pounds. Is it any wonder the UFC BS is much more popular now?
I want to go back to the 112-118-126-135-147-160-175-(OK given the modern bulked up behemoths I'd add a Cruiserweight) then heavy but that's it.
If memory serves, the first of this 'splitting the poundage' nonsense started in the sixties with the 'Jr. Middleweight' at 154.
Let's have a new division every three and a half pounds. Yeah, that would work, with 4-5-6 'champions' in every division and...with different top 10 contenders according to every ruling body involved. We already have 40-50 'top 10 contenders' and they all seem to have a 30-3 record??
Money, money, money....

 

Armstorng and Robinson. If we just go by what they weighed in the one division they competed in, guys like Stanley Ketchel who was great middleweight champ but usually weighed 154 would be considered great at 154 and 160. A lot of old time champs weighed in at what are now the junior weight divisions.

 

I agree.
9 divisions would be ideal.
1 champ in each division.

I believe they had a jr. welterweight division as far back as the 1930s, maybe jr.light as well, but they didn't last long, were not universally accepted.

 

But is he the greatest in any of those classes? No.