Top 200 All Time List, Impossible Task ?

Then what is your point? Jones, Hearns and Mayweather have achived at multiple weights, that is factually correct, but what place do they have in an argument where the top 10 pound for pound are concerned? Absolutely none. And yes, all are rated consistantly higher in p4p rankings due to their achievments at multiple weights.

You've listed Ali's resume which is enormously impressive and certainly presents an argument for his being rated above Duran, that is fair to say. But your position is that Duran does not "have a terribly strong argument" for being rated above Ali. Despite that fact that Duran has far and away the best win of the two in a pound for pound sense, in spite of the fact that Duran was challanged to a far greater degree in a pound for pound sense, in spite of the fact that he is a 135lb great who has beaten a big, punching middleweight at 160, despite the fact that he is seen by many as the greatest AND best lightweight to have ever lived, despite the fact that he, too has a deep and excellent resume.

That's not a reasonable position, I don't think.

 

Nor do I! I wouldn't "automatically" rate Jones above Ali because he has success at multiple weights. This is exactly my point. There is no point in mentioning Roy Jones as "proof" that Duran need not neccessarily be rated above Ali - Duran and Jones are in no way comparable in terms of ATG lists.

I would be happy to see guys like Buchanan and DeJesus rated in the same bracket as Patterson and Foreman. Frazier and Liston were better fighters than these men, but certainly in the case of Frazier and arguably in the case of Liston, Ali beat these men when they were past their absolute best. In short, Duran has the best win - he beat a fellow pound for pound top 15 lock, far above his best weight. He beat a primed, top 1-5 head to head ATG welter, 12 pounds above his home weight and beat him in the ring. That's an absolutley astonishing achievment. Yes, in Foreman (For me Ali's best win in the circumstances) and arguably in Liston and Frazier Ali has the better wins aside from Duran's astonishing win on paper, but for Duran, who turned pro at bantam, to step up and beat Barkley at the stage of his career at which he did it is at least comparble to Ali's defeat of Foreman IMO. That's 25lbs north of Duran's best weight representing around 1/6 of his bodyweight at that weight.

You have to provied answers to these questions for them to be worth anything, and you must also think about your answers.

Here:

Did Ali ever beat a top 15 ATG pound for pound? Did Ali ever take an ATG the distance 4 weightclasses above his best weight whilst past prime? Did Ali beat fighters with superior phycisal gifts to his own? Did Ali take on the best in the world outside his home country?