Highest ranked fighters with least impressive wins on their resume?

Good call on Foster, I rank him very highly but, for a time, he had a bad reputation for not defending against the best- and was stripped by the WBA accordingly. The normally traditionlist Boxing Illustrated agreed with the stripping too (which is unusual for them or any boxing publication).

 

Jofre...who did he beat?

 

Hector Camacho's win table is pretty thin on the ground.

 

You can really seperate the mans career into two halves. The second half being a title grabbing affair where he was afraid to take place in truly risky fights... More or less stagnated at LHW.

But the first half of his career or so?

From mid 89' when he began fighting to late 94' he beat both Hopkin's and Toney.

That doesn't excuse his entire career but he obviously hasn't always fought nobodies. I think people think more towards what he should have done, as if that makes what he did to completely underwhelming.

 

I'll get my head bitten off for this but considering hes P4P no1, Ray Robinson, look at his best wins:

Lamotta - certainly not the top MW of the era, fought 2 of the weaker Dynamite Crew in Holman Williams and Marshall and came off second best

Galivan - had 5losses in the 15months after SRR 2 and had 3losses the year before Robinson (including the disputed decision against SRR), but who knows maybe some of those fights weren't on the level

Turpin - unproven outside European opposition

Fullmer - very good MW, don't think hes a great 1 though

Zivic - tough gritty pressure fighter but basic

Armstrong - past prime and best fighting weight

Considering Burley, Cerdan, Holman Williams, Marshall, Chase were all around his weight class and Bivins, Moore, Charles higher up in weight the wins aren't as impressive as they could be

 

I somewhat agree with you, PowerPuncher. I've voiced similar thoughts on Robinson before, about his MW days anyway.

But you've got to go a bit below the surface in regards to a few of those wins.

He was pretty old and shopworn against Fullmer and he still sparked one of the toughest MW's of all time. Impressive beyond words for a natural WW.

He more then likely took it easy on Armstrong.

And Turpin... Well, he was pulling a Jack Johnson overseas at that time spending more time ****ing and drinking then training.

 

There were people RJJ didn't face but since when is it easy to enter a 3rd division beat a former top P4P'er in McCallum, destroy a former long time champ in Hill, destroy a man who twice beat Toney in Griffin and clear out the whole division other than DM himself and we all know that wasn't an easy fight to make, before jumping to beat a HW Champ and then defending against the no1 LHW contender while past prime. Its easy to say these men are bums when you don't have to fight them

Jones hasn't got the strongest comp by a long stretch but Hopkins and Toney are 2 of the best P4P fighters of the last 20years

 

When I was looking I was thinking 'Robinson has got some very impressive wins BUT considering hes P4P no1 ATG they aren't that impressive', I also wonder if Kid was pre-prime, considering his 5losses 15months after that

 

Key word with the McCallum fight is former. The win was impressive because of how you could hardly give Mike a round, not because he was in his prime or anything approaching it.

Toney was very, very beatable at times considering his near apathy to training and the sport in general. Sanderline William's took Toney to a draw for christs sake.

Also, I don't feel any of them are bums. More like there's simply another side to the story.

 

I'm not saying he wasn't impressive against said fighters, and I'm not saying he isn't the P4P GOAT either, but he doesn't have the great wins of a Leonard for instance

 

I'd say the McCallum win is better than say DLH-Chavez and McCallum was still a tricky old master a little how Hopkins is today but not as solid a LHW