Top 20 Welterweights

Here is a nice piece by @McGrain makimg a case for Mayweather

Interesting that while people discredit his opposition he fought more ranked opponents than Hearns?

Here goes his take followed by a link

09 – Floyd Mayweather (49-0)


Floyd Mayweather is a divisive figure, to put it lightly. For his legion of devoted fans, he is nothing less than the greatest fighter in history and, presumably, the greatest welterweight, too. For those that seek to undermine him — due, in many cases, to personal disdain for one of boxing’s more unpleasant characters — he belongs nowhere near the top ten welterweights in history. This being the case, I’ve endeavored to stay away, as far as it is possible in this entry, from opinion. I’ll deal in fact.

Floyd Mayweather defeated more ranked welterweight contenders than Thomas Hearns (rankings by Ring/TBRB). He defeated more top five contenders than almost anyone outside the top ten, aside from the likes of Jackie Fields – but Fields also lost to a handful of welterweights. Mayweather was unbeaten.

Mayweather defeated more welterweight lineal champions than Barney Ross. Working by the scorecards of the judges he was, for the most part, in non-competitive fights at the weight. He made a past-prime Manny Pacquiao, his #1 contender at the weight, look like a journeyman. He defeated more #1 ranked fighters (champions or top rated contenders) than all but the most storied of fighters. He boxed only three unranked men at the weight, two of whom were soft touches (Sharmba Mitchell, his first fight at the weight, and Andre Berto) and Ricky Hatton, the light-welterweight champion of the world and universally recognized pound-for-pounder, who he knocked out.

He was one of the few men to become a two-time lineal world-welterweight champion and the only man who ever did it without losing a fight, coming out of retirement to do what Barbados Joe Walcott and Benny Leonard both failed to do. During his welterweight career, moments of true danger were extremely rare; he was run close just once, in the first fight with Marcos Rene Maidana, a narrow victory he rendered wide in the rematch.

What Mayweather didn’t do was beat everyone who was available. He probably should have taken on Antonio Margarito, and Paul Williams was ranked very near the top when he was active in the division. That said, fighters who beat everyone available are close to non-existent. But if it pleases, you can zip on down to the entry on Henry Armstrong to read about a worse offender.

Nor did Mayweather show either great longevity (at the weight) or have the opportunity to beat another great welterweight, outside of Manny Pacquiao, who he had a chance to meet in his prime and failed to do so (for whatever reason). This is why Mayweather is not #1, nor anywhere near it. The top ten is well within his range however, which I make somewhere between fourteen and eight.

Outside of the ring he was an arrogant, loudmouthed, woman-beating bully bereft of class. Inside the ring he was a genius.

Other Top Fifty Welterweights Defeated: Shane Mosley (#29), Manny Pacquiao (#22).

http://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-ar...test-welterweights-of-all-time-part-five-10-1

 

1. Sugar Ray Robinson
2. Sugar Ray Leonard
3. Henry Armstrong
4. Jose Napoles
5. Kid Gavilan
6. Jack Britton
7. Joe Walcott
8. Mickey Walker
9. Emile Griffith
10. Luis Rodriguez

Honorable mentions (relative order) Tommy Hearns, Barney Ross, Jimmy McLarnin, Tommy Ryan, Ted Lewis, Felix Trinidad, Pernell Whitaker, Floyd Mayweather

 

1) Ray Robinson 2) Ray Leonard 3) Henry Armstrong 4) Jose Napoles 5) Kid Gavilan 6) Emile Griffith 7) Barney Ross 8) Jack Britton 9) Barbados Joe Walcott 10) Ted Kid Lewis

Five near misses: Floyd Mayweather, Carmen Basilio, Jimmy McLarnin, Tommy Ryan and Thomas Hearns. On any given day, any of those names could take Lewis' place (Hearns more for his all-round abilities and head to head potential rather than his outright record). I guess I should point out that I tend to rate Mickey Walker more as a Middleweight and tend to leave him out of the 147 lb reckoning.

Don't think my list will prove too controversial, although I suspect a few might think I've got Armstrong a bit too high. But while he was often a Light-Welter masquerading as a Welter, he did hammer someone who makes my top ten to lift the crown, and to this day nobody has defended the bona fide Welter title as many times as Armstrong. And it's not as if he was defending it against patsies, either. Difficult to leave the most prolific champion in the division's history out of the top three, for me - even if he was a better pure fighting specimen at 135 or 140.

 

The two best lists so far in my view. I'll dig mine out from the WW top 20 I posted in another thread.

 

1. Sugar Ray Robinson
2. Sugar Ray Leonard
3. Jose Napoles
4. Henry Armstrong
5. Kid Gavilan
6. Emile Griffith
7. Mickey Walker
8. Jack Britton
9. Barbados Joe Walcott
10. Barney Ross