Henry Armstrong makes a lot of peoples top 5 lists and was named 2nd greatest fighter of the last 80 years by Ring Magazine in 2007. He also defended the Welterweight championship more times than any other fighter. This ESPN short piece is a great intro. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgbt6Pd_M5w[/ame]
Definately one of the genuine GREATEST. Will leave it for someone else to check, but I believe he defended his World W/W Crown on 5 occasions in the space of a single month.. Oct 1937 or '38.
Flamengo I defended my Australian jnr welter title 3 times in 6 weeks and the media made such a big deal of it. To defend a world title 5 times in a month shows how much fighters in those days were willing to step up. One thing is for sure. They dont make them like they used to.
when you look at his records , who he beat, how many divisions he went through in a time of just 8 divisions and one world champ he is rightly regarded as one of the top 10 ATG fighters. but when you watch him fight in all the old reels of footage that show his fights , he was not a pleasing on the eye fighter, used his stamina /strength /chin/durabilty and high punch output to beat on opponents.
