Greg you are one of the most informative & knowledgeable Posters on here, and it is commendable that you can & do recognize the truth & reality of what Boxing really is, namely financially & nationalistically partisan, so surely that effects your understanding of Boxing greats and supposed greats and likewise greats not often given default considerations, given such facts of their careers. does this not 'generally' speaking, nullify trying to list fighters, which at best are only 'close' to possible order, but never 100% because of the nature of the above. Surely a man of your Boxing awareness knows & understands this. just curious to your thoughts.
I'm not sure about that Thistle, but I appreciate the compliment all the same. When ranking fighters I try to consider all factors, including hometown advantages and/or decisions. I certainly would never claim my, or anyone else's, rankings are 100% accurate. I don't think the word "accurate" correlates with something so intrinsically subjective by it's very nature.
that is precisely my point and reasons why I rarely ever attempt them... I was introduced to these facts a long time ago, when I heard Oldtimers mention 3 things as a young fan that I was naively unaware of - "Ratings", they mean very little, not all fighters are afforded the same chances" you are only as good as your last fight. Frozen Out or Shut - Out fighters, I didn't understand that at first, certainly we are all aware of 'Ducking' fighters, but many of us never really applied that to too many fighters and more so never, if ever, applied that to Management, Backers or Boards even... I have to say for me anyway, it wasn't just a surprise, but it was deflating in the sense that it destroyed my 'innocence', in that we, young fans, foolishly believed that the Champions were the Best in the World, whereas in truth many weren't. Lastly, Fighters, "Enhanced their reputation" which ties into the Ratings thing, which was the way fighters advanced before the Ratings became the default measure and of course, always & only 'IF', given the opportunity to meet the other Noted Men in Straight contests that didn't suffer the abuses of the Business of Boxing... it kills the Sport element, because the truth is, there is little 'sport' about it.
