P - o - u - n - d - f - o - r - p - o - u - n - d - t - o - p - 1 - 0 - 0

Greetings fellow posters.


Here is my first ever attempt at an all-time pound-for-pound top 100. Ever since my grandfather bought me the book "Henry Cooper's 100 Greatest Boxers" when I was a bit younger, I have always wanted to write my own top 100.

However, when I was writing this and deciding on it, I became aware of the futility of trying to make such a list. It is all just too subjective and inaccurate. So this will be my first, last and only such list.

I recently wrote a top 50, and the amount of names I considered before getting down to just 50 convinced me I could write a decent full hundred.

I haven't been on the site much over the last week or so as I had been busy finishing uni work before breaking for Xmas and then researching for this list. I have changed my original top 50 quite a bit, as I took some suggestions some people made on that list, researched it, and made some changes that I thought needed to be made.

With this list, I have decided not to number it 1-100 because I noticed people getting too hung up on how I could possibly have placed guy A above guy B, when really the margin between the two in my mind that meant I decided on A over B was so razor-thin that I couldn't really be bothered getting into a heated debate over it. So this time I have still put the fighters down in order from 1-100, but I have declined to number them (aside putting down markers in tens, 1-10, 11-20 and so on - these are numerical markers only) and have instead used a tier system.

Although the fighters are in order of 1-100, I have placed fighters that I think are of similar greatness in the same tier so I will not get involved in big debates about the placings of fighters within that tier, as the margins between those fighters are negligible. This is not a science, after all.

If anyone thinks it is scandalous that I have placed someone in the wrong tier, then that is indeed a matter for debate, sure, as that would indicate a considerable difference in greatness in my opinion.

So without further ado, here is...


MY ALL-TIME POUND-FOR-POUND TOP 100 BOXERS



1-10
Tier One________________________________________________
Sugar Ray Robinson
Sam Langford
Harry Greb
Henry Armstrong
Ezzard Charles
Muhammad Ali
Roberto Duran
Mickey Walker

Tier Two________________________________________________
Archie Moore*
Barney Ross

11-20
Carlos Monzon
Willie Pep
Benny Leonard
Bob Fitzsimmons
Ray Leonard
Pernell Whitaker
Gene Tunney

Tier Three_______________________________________________
Roy Jones Jr*
Emile Griffith
Charley Burley

21-30
Joe Louis
Joe Gans
Eder Jofre
Alexis Arguello
Sandy Saddler
Tony Canzoneri
Kid Gavilan
Barbados Joe Walcott
Jimmy Wilde

Tier Four________________________________________________
Julio Cesar Chavez

31-40
Carlos Ortiz
Bernard Hopkins
Thomas Hearns
Marvin Hagler
Evander Holyfield
Jose Napoles
Lennox Lewis
Floyd Mayweather Jr
Holman Williams*
Ike Williams

41-50
Manny Pacquiao
Salvador Sanchez
Luis Manuel Rodriguez
Ruben Olivares
Fighting Harada*
Jimmy McLarnin
Jack Britton

Tier Five________________________________________________
Michael Spinks
Terry McGovern
Rocky Marciano

51-60
Miguel Canto
Ted Kid Lewis
Billy Conn
Jack Dempsey 'Nonpareil'
Dick Tiger
Jack Johnson
Pascual Perez
Harry Wills
Wilfredo Gomez
Tiger Flowers

61-70
Jimmy Bivins
Bob Foster

Tier Six_________________________________________________
Duilio Loi
Pancho Villa
Tommy Loughran
Stanley Ketchel
Georges Carpentier
Lloyd Marshall
Carmen Basilio
Jake LaMotta

71-80
Joe Brown
Manuel Ortiz
Sonny Liston

Tier Seven_______________________________________________
George Foreman
Ken Buchanan
Joe Frazier
Panama Al Brown
Mike Tyson
Gene Fullmer
Nino Benvenuti

81-90
Mike McCallum
Kid Chocolate
Oscar De La Hoya
Marco Antonio Barrera
Marcel Cerdan
Larry Holmes
Azumah Nelson
Erik Morales
James Toney
Ricardo Lopez

91-100
Tier Eight_______________________________________________
Wilfred Benitez
Carlos Zarate
Felix Trinidad
Aaron Pryor
Nicolino Locche
Antonio Cervantes
Jack Dempsey
Vicente Saldivar
Joe Calzaghe
Benny Lynch


- No honourable mentions allowed, though there are plenty!




Some notes:

* For McGrain: You were right about Archie Moore. After a thorough examination of his resume, his longevity, his achievements, I concede that he does deserve to be ranked higher than Carlos Monzon. I still maintain that Monzon was a special fighter though, better than the approximate #20 ranking that you believe he is worthy of, I can't rank him lower than Fitzsimmons, though I have them in the same tier so I do think they are on a roughly similar level of greatness. Your observations on my last list were of great value to me though, much appreciated. (I have neglected to include George Dixon, I know you rate him highly but I really couldn't find sufficient information on him to make a definitive judgement)

* For Rukelie: Jones Jr slipped to 18th behind Tunney this time. I'm sure you will still be appalled, but my new tier system means I will stubbornly refuse to get drawn into arguments over individual placings within the same tier!



All comments and criticisms welcome... :bbb

 

T - h - a - n - k - s!

 

What a great comment. Thanks very much. Brilliant post.

 

Of course he would have made it into the Honourable Mentions category had I written one.

 

The mods can do so if they wish.

 

It will get moved in there shortly I expect, I thought I'd post it here first, get a General flavour of opinion and some quick comments.

Joe made the cut yes. It was between him, Benny Lynch and Shane Mosley for the last 2 places and sadly Sugar Shane missed out.

 

Again, thanks so much, you're making me blush. If you do fancy ****ing off though, be my guest.