In Grouping Your Top 5-10 Favorite Boxers, What Patterns Do You See?

:good

His combination punching and footwork that night were exquisite.

 

My favourites all left more of themselves in the ring than they took out of it. The were fighters first and people second.

Part of me hopes I never see their like again.

 

1. Pernell Whitaker
2. Jim Driscoll
3. Packey McFarland
4. Billy Graham
5. Fighting Harada
6. Kid Gavilan
7. Nicolino Locche
8. Barney Ross
9. Jose Napoles
10. Benny Leonard

Trends:
- Pretty much every fighter there has great fighting technique and artistry (maybe not Harada, but he had a flair of his own in any case)

- They are all lower weight fighters. My three favourite weight divisions are featherweight, lightweight and welterweight, and that's represented here. I seldom venture into a boxing debate above welterweight

- A lot of fighters there I consider to be underrated or underappreciated, e.g. Driscoll, MCFarland, Graham, Harada

 

Is it a coincidence that your also a fan of Salvador Sanchez as well?

 

..............My second favorite (but favorite fighter).

 

Right. There's no other way to put it but exquisite. I had heard about the fight ad nauseum as to how Calzaghe outclassed Lacy, but when I actually saw it for the first time recently, I was amazed.

 

Joe Frazier
RJJ
Pernell Whitaker
Muhammad Ali
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Willie Pep
Sugar Ray Leonard

Aside from Frazier, I think the pattern is extremely obvious.

 

JACK DEMPSEY
ROCKY MARCIANO -JIM JEFFRIES -JOE LOUIS -JAKE LAMMOTA -TYSON-KETCHEL-WARD-GATTI-KESSLER after about the first 4 the others are hard to come up with but mainly lean toward TOUGH fighters,INFIGHTERS,those who could get hit by a sledge hammer and keep coming,i tend to like older times cause there were less dec. and stoppages there were more warriors and less dancers like floyd may.

 

1. Marvin Hagler
2. Aaron Pryor
3. Nigel Benn
4. Salvador Sanchez
5. Sugar Ray Robinson
6. George Foreman
7. James Toney
8. Thomas Hearns
9. Larry Holmes
10. Mike McCallum


Mostly I like well-rounded boxers with no glaring weakness. Fighters who are adaptable, who can punch and take a good one in return. I like ring generals, fighters who can more often than not outbox the boxer and outpunch the puncher. See Hagler, Sanchez, Robinson, Toney, Holmes and McCallum.

I also like fighters with a very special offensive arsenal but who are vulnerable somewhere else.. chin, stamina or defense by example. It always brings something special to a fight. (See Pryor, Benn, Foreman and Hearns.

 

I appreciate all types of fighting styles and really pride myslf extensively on being a very open-minded fan who takes interest in all types of boxing wether people generally deem it 'boring' or not.

However i think my faves are the guys who usually are real warriors, im not talking Gatti and Ward, not into that personally. Im talking Duran and Morales, Greb, Margarito, , Trinidad, Robinson (at one time, Barrera was my fave active fighter, but since their declines, i favour Morales for the reasons im stating here), Ezzard Charles aswell.

These guys always left it all in the ring everytime they fought (with the one exception being THAT Duran fight!). I also like B-Hop very much.

I think im just really intrigued and in awe of fighters who have great, and moving stories, usually guys who had it really tough, most fighters did, but the Latin fighters have never failed to have me in awe. When i read Burley's book i was also left feeling like this, maybe for a different reason though, the avoided factor had me there.

 

I also think i have a tendency to follow guys that i consider 'vicious' in the ring, not just 'aggressive', hence my fave fighter pictured in my avatar, and the only current fighter i included in my previous post- Margo.

 

Now, this is far from set in stone and is made up just of the guys who came to mind this particular evening, and this is not deliberately put in order, but:
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Marciano
Frazier
Moore
Monzon*
Braddock
JJ Walcott
Emmanuel Augustus
Dempsey (heavyweight)
Foreman
Ali
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*I am a big fan of Monzon the fighter, but definitely not Monzon the man, while all the others I can say I admire greatly as fighters and at least respect as human beings
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So, on the whole, I tend strongly towards heavyweights (seven of the 10 are guys who were career heavyweights or are at least best known for what they did at heavyweight), strongly towards champions (all world champions except Augustus, who I love for being an incredibly entertaining and endearing oddball), and strongly towards great champions (only Braddock and Augustus made the list aren't what you'd call "all-time great" fighters; five of my top 10 all-time heavyweights made the list, four of the top five, and my middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight number-ones all made the list). I think this is largely because I spend the most time studying fighters fitting those parameters and so accumulate the most knowledge and the most attachment towards them- also because, being great fighters, they are more likely to have admirable achievements which would endear them to me.

My #1 and 2 all-time favorite fighters (see my name) should definitely both be classed as "swarmers," but the overall top 10 is a pretty even spread stylewise, with two to three swarmers (Marciano and Frazier, with Dempsey arguably also falling in this category), two to four boxer-punchers (Moore and Monzon, with Braddock and Dempsey also arguably belonging), one pure puncher (Foreman), and three unconventional tricky boxer-types (Walcott, Augustus and Ali). The only style I'm really missing is a pure, orthodox defensive boxer- and not by coincidence, as I do find that style somewhat dry and uninteresting, though there are some guys fitting that prototype who are at least in the running for this list.

Speaking of which, here are some other guys who I would consider for a top 10 all-time favorites list:
Ezzard Charles
Sam Langford
Elmer Ray
Harry Greb
Sugar Ray Robinson
Micky Ward
Joe Louis