My Top 5 Since 1980

I think we can all agree that Leonard, Whitaker and Jones Jr are the definitive top three, irrespective of what order you place them in (personally Jones is my concrete no.3 but I alternate between Leonard and Whitaker as my no1. Right now, I give the edge to Leonard on resume).

After that it is indeed razor-thin margins between each and every one of the fighters mentioned.

Chavez, Hopkins, Holyfield, Lewis, Hagler, Spinks, Hearns, McCallum.

Maybe McCallum and Hearns can be said to be the two you would most immediately think to remove if trimming the list.

But I still think they merit inclusion in the aforementioned group rather than what I would call the next tier down, alongside guys like Tyson, Mayweather Jr, Ricardo Lopez, De La Hoya, Holmes etc.


However, from the group:

Chavez, Hopkins, Holyfield, Lewis, Hagler, Spinks


I am comfortable with my decision to select Chavez and Hopkins to complete my top 5.

If you had to choose two from that list to complete your top 5, who do you choose Pea?

 

Whilst he is underrating Chavez, his record IS very padded. He's right about that.

 

I honestly couldn't tell you. I am having a really hard time seperating between them, so much so that I'm going to have to give some further thought to the order of my ATG list, which I'm considering furthering to a top 50. I don't rate Chavez above Hearns though.

 

I already explained that.

 

Based on what ?

Hopkins has had wins over Pavlik, Wright and Tarver since 2000 which is better than anything PBF has done.

Are we counting the loss to Castillo aswell ?

And H2H Floyd gets smacked around by pretty much everyone mentioned in previous lists.

Ducked everyone, needs to take a leaf out of Shane Mosleys book and fight the best. Im glad he's fooled someone !

 

Based on his greatness!

 

I look forward to knowing your two from that list Pea. It is so difficult to decide on this I know. What a stupendous list of fighters it is. I'll probably have changed my mind by tomorrow! The top 3 is clear to me, but after that it gets horrible.

 

I'm not saying he wasn't a world class fighter, only that he wasn't top 5 since 1980. He got Gifts: Taylor, Whitaker (shameful decision), and beat many, many mediocre fighters, as well as good fighters. But, he lost, or should have lost, to all the truly great fighters he fought. That's just in the stats. Not my bias.

 

Taylor wasn't a gift. Sweet Pea did beat him though. You seem to only be taking the Oscar and Kosta match into consideration.
Hagler
SRL
Pea
Chavez
Hopkins

 

The only truly great fighter he fought in his prime was Whitaker, and there's not a whole lot of shame in losing to a fighter of that caliber. I don't consider the Taylor fight a gift or even a bad call on Steele's part all things considered, though I acknowledge that it was controversial and understand arguments to the contrary.

Chavez has a few shady situations in his career aside from the Taylor win that make me shake my head (such as his early loss which was latered changed to a NC on the part of his trainer, and the scandal with the Frankie Randall rematch), but not enough to exclude him as a great fighter at his best. The Chavez that destroyed Rosario was a truly great LW, anyone who's seen the match would agree. Overall though, I probably agree that he wasn't quite top 5 since 1980. Clear cut top 10 though.

 

The Taylor call was very, very dicey, but other than that, I agree 100%. If I said he wasn't 'great' earlier, I didn't mean 'great' in the larger sense, only that I didn't think he was in the league of other top fighters listed. But that's not a slight. Very few fighters are in that league.

 

The Whitaker draw was a gift, the Taylor stoppage was not. Taylor did not respond to Steele when he asked him twice if he was OK, the decision to stop the fight was correct. And even so, if it had been 15 rounds Chavez of course would have stopped him in the next round if Taylor had been permitted to ocntinue, and not every fighter since 1980 fought in the 12-round era, if they had Leonard would have lost to Hearns.

He was never beaten in his prime really. Rosario, Taylor, Camacho, Ramirez, Lockridge, Haugen, LaPorte, Martinez, Roger Mayweather (twice), Tony Lopez, etc. Chavez could easily be justified a spot inside the top 5, and if not is right outside.

 

Has anyone yet had Holyfield in their top 5? He didn't quite make the cut for my own, but I thought he'd have been a bit more of a popular contender. Taking into account both his cruiserweight career and his first decade as a heavyweight, I think the Real Deal is right up there.

 

I agree. He's done so much to lessen the impact of his career that people undervalue it. He's generally considered the greatest CW ever, which is no small thing, last I checked.

 

PBF didn't lose to JLC he's 2-0 period end of discusion if we can't agree on that then there's no point of continuing this discussion.
PBF is a great H2H fighter due to his defense and ring IQ he's a stylistic nightmare for most.
PBF being the best fighter of this decade is what helps his case. Titles at 135, 140, 147 and 154 all while remaining undefeated while losing few rounds in the process. A blind man can see his skills and he was in the top 10 P4P since 98 and #1 P4P for 3.