THE CLASSIC HALL OF FAME INAUGURAL INDUCTION: The Light-Heavyeights (Closed - Results In)

Moore
Spinks
Foster
Loughran
Charles
Conn
Bivins

 

Ezzard Charles (1940-1959)
Archie Moore (1935-1963)
Gene Tunney (1915-1928)
Michael Spinks (1977-1988)
Harold Johnson (1946-1971)
Billy Conn (1934-1948)
Tommy Loughran (1919-1937)

 

I put Lloyd Marshall in mine even though his best days weren't as a light heavy and the super middleweight division hadn't been thought of.
Could easily have put Jimmy Bivins in, Gene Tunney or Tommy Loughran instead.

 

Archie Moore
Ezzard Charles
Gene Tunney
Bob Foster
Michael Spinks
Jimmy Bivins
Billy Conn

 

1. Ezzard Charles
2. Gene Tunney
3. Michael Spinks
4. Archie Moore
5. Billy Conn
6. Jimmy Bivins
7. Tommy Gibbons

Most difficult division for me so far. I'm comfortable my top 4 should be included, but not confident in picking my 5-7 over Tommy Loughran. Hell, I'm not even certain they should be ahead of John Henry Lewis, Bob Foster and Harold Johnson. I found this so tough.

 

Archie Moore (1935-1963)
Bob Foster (1961-1978)
Gene Tunney (1915-1928)
Ezzard Charles (1940-1959)
Jimmy Bivins (1940-1955)
Michael Spinks (1977-1988)
Tommy Loughran (1919-1937)

It pains me to leave out Harold Johnson, Dwight Muhammad Qawi and Victor Galindez.

 

I did think it a bit of an exaggeration, until you qualified the statement ;-)

Mid-2020 when work was quiet due to Covid, I put a fair amount of research into creating top 20 lists of the original 8 divisions (though nothing like the amount that must have gone into your top 50 lists). I limited my analysis to fights contested within the weight division I was ranking. I'm a sad act, so have a big spreadsheet detailing my research & separate Word documents comparing fighters who were closely ranked, in further detail.

When I first saw these threads I thought "great, I've already done the work & it will come in useful". Then I read rule 4....

After finishing the divisional rankings late 2020, I set out on a top 50 p4p list & got as far as a provisional 25, but then work got busier and have only managed a few false starts in an attempt to finish it since. So, where I struggled particularly with the LHWs, is that I've not researched what some of the nominees did outside of 175 in anything like I did what they did at it. I know Conn, Loughran and Gibbons all did notable work at MW & HW, and Bivins at HW, but haven't analysed it in enough detail to be confident in my picks.

 

Archie Moore (1935-1963)
Maxie Rosenbloom (1923-1939)
Harold Johnson (1946-1971)
John Henry Lewis (1929-1939)
Gene Tunney (1915-1928)
Jimmy Bivins (1940-1955)
Michael Spinks (1977-1988)

 

Ezzard Charles
Archie Moore
Michael Spinks
Harold Johnson
Gene Tunney
Billy Conn
Tommy Loughran

Hard to leave out Bivins and as much as i like Foster, i always thought his resume was kind of underwhelming. Had he fought the likes of Galindez, Conteh, i'd rate him a bit higher.

 

1 Ezzard Charles
2 Archie Moore
3 Billy Conn
4 Bob Foster
5 Michael Spinks
6 Tommy Loughran
7 Tommy Gibbons

 

Why on earth would we consider their pound-for-pound standing and their records in other divisions if we're rating JUST the best light heavyweights?

Shouldn't we rate the guys who were "the best at light heavyweight" for a BEST OF THE LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHTS poll?