Part I: Classic's Consensus P4P Top 10 Inclusions

The "Stonehands' Top 10 HW Champions" thread from a few weeks ago seems to have settled into the following:

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

{Anyone who wants to debate the above list should go to that thread}

The purpose of this thread is to find a pool of potential top 10 fighters of all time, p4p. So I'd like to start hashing out who earns a place somewhere in that elite group.

This content is protected

Try not to repeat names already mentioned -so read the preceding posts once they start to pile up.

So, Part I is for us to summon

This content is protected

and then debate who earns a place somewhere in the top 10 -not "where they place" but "if" a particular fighter places.

 

Sorry, I'm first out of the gate so I guess I get the no brainers. I can't conceive of these guys being outside any top 10. Esteemed by their peers and "experts" alike:

Sam Langford
Sugar Ray Robinson
Harry Greb

 

I'll take next then

Henry Armstrong
Ezzard Charles
Roberto Duran

 

Willie Pep

 

Definite: Benny Leonard

Recommended: Archie Moore

Entirely Possible: Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali

 

Mickey Walker
Barney Ross
Ray Leonard

 

Sam Langford, Harry Greb, Sugar Ray Robinson and Henry Armstrong, should be the top 4, in whatever order, but nobody can rank above those 4 guys. Ezzard Charles should also definately be in the top 10, as should Roberto Duran.

The rest are debatable, though I have guys like Benny Leonard, Willie Pep and Mickey Walker.

 

Good start. Benny Leonard, Ezzard, Moore, Ross, and Walker are debatable. Would anyone argue that others (besides the shoe-ins) should be in their place?

 

Recommended: Sandy Saddler

 

Barbados Joe Walcott and Bob Fitzsimmons.

 

Joe Gans

 

I'd actually say Pep's inclusion might be more open to debate than Moore's. Same with Ezzard Charles. Those two are shoo-in's, SH.

 

My own personal opinion is that the top 5 simply has to be: Robinson, Langford, Greb, Armstrong and Charles in whichever order you prefer.

Personally I also cannot accept a top 10 without Mickey Walker, Roberto Duran or Muhammad Ali.

So for me, only two places are up for grabs.

Right now, I give them to Archie Moore and Barney Ross.

But I would not argue with anyone who had Benny Leonard or Willie Pep or Bob Fitzsimmons or Joe Gans, or IMO even Pernell Whitaker or Ray Leonard.

In particular, choosing between Ross, Benny Leonard and Pep for 10th is a horrible choice. It's anyones guess who is truly the greatest of those three.

 

Neither were active in 1920. That year is as good a cut off as any because I at least hold that before that year it was essentially a different sport.