The Top 100 Pound for Pound All-Time Greats

I think Louis beat more rated opposition and was every bit as consistent. Plus he didn't have a Saddler. But it's close.

 

Not sure I can agree with that. I'd rather have Saddler past prime than a Schemling shellacking. Heck, a close Walcott fight is not far off. The Pep Saddler win is better than anything Louis ever did. Not to mention the fights all stemmed with a past prime Pep getting borderline flagrantly injured. Makes Dawson's hip-check against Nard look like a love tap in comparison. We're talking about a top 25 fighter as well.

 

I have Pep above Louis (and neither quite making the top 10, actually), but the reverse is fine by me. Louis is the preeminent champion in all of boxing history. It's hard to oversell that point.

 

"By the time George Dixon gave him the nod, he was boxing with the apocalyptic savagery of a butcher turned trained killer."

 

The whole McGovern write-up gave me ****ing chills. The others were all excellent as well.

 

Gans and McFarland were to meet after Gans was supposed to defeat Battling Nelson in their 2nd bout. Unholz, Nelson, then McFarland, that was Gans' schedule. Alas. The history would have been very different, with no Nelson, Wolgast, Ritchie or Welsh as lightweight champions.

 

Exactly.

If that's it, then Sugar Ray Robinson better be number one.

Since everyone's fine with Louis over Pep. How about Benny Leonard? Almost everyone rates Leonard over Pep. Does anyone rate Leonard over Louis? Even Louis over Walker looks funny. Ah well, Duran makes the top 10 which is pretty cool.

 

Why?

 

Based on 2nd and 3rd Nelson bouts - yes, I think Packey could beat Gans. Rumors about tuberculosis first appeared in the press in August 1908, I think. At least I don't recall any earlier mentions.

1908-08-21 The Chicago Daily Tribune (Chicago, IL) (page 6)
HAS JOE GANS TUBERCULOSIS?
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Report Comes from Baltimore That the Colored Lightweight Is a Victim of the Dread Disease.
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Baltimore, Md., Aug. 20.--[Special.]--Information has been received here that Joe Gans has developed a tendency to tuberculosis. The pugilist is now in San Francisco, but a friend of his said today that before Joe left Baltimore he was in worse shape than many of his acquaintances imagined and that he would come home to fight the toughest battle of his life--a struggle with disease. Sporting friends of Gans have observed he was "drying up" and losing weight. Now comes a report that a physician has ordered him to live and sleep in the open air.


The talk of him not being the same Gans started much earlier than that, but his tremendous skills, for a time, concealed that fact.

 

Please consider '**** The Judges' in his win against Ceferino Garcia, legit 4 class champ.

 

That's a lot of clippings to look through, I can't say. My recollections are patchy at best, as I'm adding clippings from different periods of his career, at random, and this process has been going on for years, so that I don't have a full picture of everything that's in my scrap-books. Plus I'm switching back and forth between different fighters, not just Gans. Ask me about some particular fight, that's easier to answer, but ask me give you an overview of his career, and I'll be stuck.