Should loses matter at all, or is greatness simply about who you beat?

Losses should matter -- not just if one lost, but how you lost and why, same as wins. If losses didn't matter and only wins did, fighting often and with careless abandon would be the way to build a legacy, inherently "gambling" in the ring, creating shootouts and ****shoots. Fun for sure, but not what I think being great is about.

I think fighters like De La Hoya, Roberto Duran and Muhammad Ali gave us every opportunity to know exactly who they were as fighters. They did this by fighting almost everyone. One is able to get a solid grasp on their strengths and weaknesses because of this.

Few fighters have the opportunity, the desire and the courage to do as they did. There are almost always some question marks, and they are just that, unknowable things.

Joe Calzaghe for instance fought at the elite level for a very short amount of time at the tail-end of his career. He won all his fights -- but still it is clear to almost everyone here at classic that you can't call him greater than the names posted above.

Because you get credit for the fighters you did beat, and not the ones you could beat.