Top 100 Boxers of All Time

I want to see were people agree and disagree.

 

Skimmed through it. I heard what you said about Mayweather & Pacman. Floyd isn't 2nd and Pac isn't 4th. Pep should be higher IMO (22). Ward should be lower (38). Calzaghe should be higher (48).

 

Rumsfeld always produces quality. He should be a prominent figure in boxing media, if he isn't already.

Hats off to Rumsfeld!

 

I still have the book from the 80's that didn't even have Tyson in it yet.

 

Really interesting work Rummy! I think many of the historians and purists will 100% look at Pac & Mayweather n the top 5 and claim "Young Punk Recency Bias" but it's hard to argue those 2 splitting 2000 & 2010; indeed there is quite the yin/yang symmetry with them being 1/2 flipped in those two decades!

Alvarez, Ward & Zags are probably all a bit high as well for me in terms of recent greats.

I guess the real pivot here is if you even changed one person in the 13 doing the voting that could change a hell of a lot - and an entirely different 13 could be radically different; or maybe not, it would be interesting to see if that "perception" was consistent across different voters!

What's also interesting is whether voters who are really educated and erudite on the 1890s and 1900s are going to be less so on modern decades (historian tilt?) and they may be a literally dying breed; at what point in the future will folks decide to cut off 1890s for example as voters don't know it well and view it as so radically different from now to almost be a different sport?

Great stuff as usual!

 

@Rumsfeld I really enjoyed these results. Also, I want to commend you on a fine job of finding a wide variety of different adjectives to describe these great fighters. I know that is not an easy task.

As for the list itself, I have always been a believer that greatness is measured by how great you are within your era because everything else is just speculation. I think this survey and your mathematical formula did a great job of bearing that out. I know the results are mathematically based, but I do believe it’s clear that the key element is longevity. Your formula did a great job of pointing out who is great and an even better job of pointing out how long they were great.

This seems like a labor of love for you and I really appreciate the hard work you put into this just to entertain and inform a motley group of boxing fans.

 

@Rumsfeld Excellent list. I'm impressed that you used a ratings system based on math and not opinion. Decades ago I was given the task of ranking oil/gas drilling prospects and I used a math based system as opposed to previous workers who just used Intuition. I also used a question based system to assess the risk of drilling projects.

I can't see anyone arguing with your list unless they show the way they ranked the boxers. "Saddler is better than Pep because he beat Willie" won't wash.

I'm a little sad that Tye Fields didn't show up but maybe he's number 102.

Well done paisano!

 

I prefer the old timers because I think the sport back then was purer.. you tended to get a clearer picture of who the man was.. for example less weight divisions meant the talent pool wasn't as diluted & same day weigh ins stamped out weight grifing.

It was altogether a tougher frame work to operate in.. 15 rounds, thinner gloves, no PEDs & fighting at a much more regular frequency all pushed the fighters harder than those of today which is why i respect & revere them more. Ducking was less common too..

Yes there was fixing & corruption but it goes on today too, whether people like to admit it or not.

 

Really enjoyed that Rummy,some strange results but really appreciate the enormous effort you put into this

 

On this forum @Rumsfeld is a hero..end of story!

 

He's a top 5 guy.

 

Sugar Ray Robinson
Henry Armstrong
Harry Greb
Roberto Durán
Muhammad Ali
Willie Pep
Sam Langford
Joe Louis
Ezzard Charles
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Benny Leonard
Sugar Ray Leonard
Archie Moore
Manny Pacquiao
Joe Gans
Carlos Monzón
Pernell Whitaker
Julio César Chávez
Jack Johnson
Thomas Hearns
Marvin Hagler
Evander Holyfield
Barney Ross
Mickey Walker
Tony Canzoneri
Bob Fitzsimmons
Sandy Saddler
Gene Tunney
Jimmy Wilde
Ike Williams
José Nápoles
Eder Jofre
Alexis Argüello
Rocky Marciano
Jack Dempsey
George Foreman
Bernard Hopkins
Emile Griffith
Salvador Sánchez
Wilfredo Gómez
Carlos Ortiz
Ruben Olivares
Dick Tiger
Juan Manuel Márquez
Luis Manuel Rodríguez
Wilfred Benítez
Mike McCallum
Azumah Nelson
Ricardo López
Marco Antonio Barrera
James Toney
Roy Jones Jr.
Lennox Lewis
Joe Frazier
Sonny Liston
Mike Tyson
Wladimir Klitschko
Miguel Cotto
Erik Morales
Vicente Saldivar
Manuel Ortiz
Pancho Villa
Fighting Harada
Pascual Pérez
Eusebio Pedroza
Miguel Canto
Carlos Zárate
José Torres
Bob Foster
Tommy Loughran
Jimmy McLarnin
Kid Gavilan
Carmen Basilio
Jake LaMotta
Jersey Joe Walcott
Billy Conn
Marcel Cerdan
Gene Fullmer
Joe Brown
Tiger Flowers
George Dixon
Abe Attell
Peter Jackson
Ted “Kid” Lewis
Jack Britton
Tommy Ryan
Benny Lynch
Freddie Welsh
Packey McFarland
Young Corbett III
Ike Quartey
Azumah Nelson
Michael Spinks
Virgil Hill
Dariusz Michalczewski
Canelo Álvarez
Oleksandr Usyk
Terence Crawford
Naoya Inoue
Gennady Golovkin

 

Sugar Ray Leonard at only #19?

He’s easily top 5 all-time, dominated in a very strong era. He had hand speed, agility, stamina, great feet, great chin, high iq, an unbelievable overall skillset.

 

#19 is a more reasonable position than 5