Tony Zale's Ranking..Where should he be?

Tony Zale was a great fighter, but I would have a hard time ranking him in the top five or
ten in the rankings of the greatest middleweights in history.

- Chuck Johnston

 

this is absolutely true, and I for one don't understand such lists, because as soon as you see them you can automatically think of others who are/were better fighters.

I know they are achievement based, which is proof enough that they aren't necessarily the best, but when they change repeatedly and fighter A is now dropped for another, you have to question, "how many _ucking levels of greatness you got out there.

it just becomes an exercise in inaccurate achievement based ratings, where some of these guys are clearly not even close to the Best or Greatest.

but because they can qualify for such lists, some people 'wrongly' think that fighter A, B or C automatically beats this fighter or that fighter throughout a divisions LONG and in many cases PACKED history.

for me it's easier, and more accurate to recognise the definite elite fighters a Greb, a SRR, a Pep or a Benny Leonard and a few dozen more and then you follow that by literally hundreds of Great fighters. At the end of the day there is 'little' between the TOP men, who on almost any given night could win or lose to one another.