Absolute lock for no.1: Fitz. EDIT: or Langford, how the **** did I forget him? On my P4P list Langford ranks higher, but at this level of greatness you're taking the **** picking one over another IMO. Gans, Nonpareil, Griffo, Dixon, McGovern, Walcott, Johnson, all in the top 10. Give me time and I can probably give you a top 10. Bit shaky on top 20 though. There was a lot of quality fighters without Championship recognition who would be right up there. Maybe Nelson would round off the top ten? Corbett, Sullivan, Jackson, Jeffries, Ketchel...wouldn't know how to split all them to be honest.
:nono Paup Snith and Lucky Sambo were far greater fighters, mainly due to their epic 100 fight series with each other :deal
:huh Lucky Sambo or Young Lucky Sambo III? Because only one of them was in a gloved 100-fight series with Snith, home skillet, and it wasn't Lucky Sambo I. Trust that! :bbb
Come on man, Lucky Sambo is the commonly accepted moniker for Charles Reed Cane Jr, as he was the most lauded of the 8 that shared that name. You know that so don't be a pedant :fire Not a big puncher but even if he had been it would've made no difference with Sniths legendary mandible (the Liverpudlian of course went into the ring with 300lb Greco-Roman wrestlers in exhibitions despite weighing a shade over six stone)
No order(this is hard enough!): Bob Fitzsimmons Joe Gans Joe Walcott George Dixon Young Griffo Jack Johnson Jim Jeffries John L. Sullivan Jim Corbett Sam Langford Stanley Ketchel Terry McGovern Tommy Ryan Nonpareil Jack Dempsey Kid McCoy Peter Jackson George Kid Lavigne Abe Attell Ike Weir Jimmy Barry Jack McAuliffe Philadelphia Jack O'Brien Jack Blackburn Packey McFarland Jim Driscoll (OK, so that's 25. Too hard to cull)