Not saying he's the best, but more that I'm looking for help to top him: Venezuela - Bernardo Pinango, beat Gaby Canizales for Batamaweight title. Also won Super Bantamweight title. Good fighter, but there's got to be someone better from Venezuela. I'm drawing a blank, somebody help me out! Colombia - Rodrigo Valdez
There's some good Venezuluan fighters aroud atm, the most notable being Edwin Valero, Jorge Linares and Alexander Munoz, along with Patrick Lopez aswell and Lorenzo Parra. Pinango is a good call, there's Antonio Cermeno aswell, another 2 weight world champion, there's Fulgencio Obelmijas (sp?) who fought Hagler twice and was a champion brieftly at 168. There's Carlos Hernandez aswell who was undisputed at 140 briefly.
Phillipines- Manny Pacquaio Korea-? El Salvador- Carlos Hernandez Egypt - Naseem Hamed? There's been a few for Canada, But Matthew Hilton was pretty good also.
Mike McCallum Jamaica Mustapha Hamsho - Syria Harry Simon - Namibia Chong Pal Park South Korea Dariusz Michalczewski - Poland Yolande Pompey - Trinidad David Tua - Samoa Kostya Tszyu - Russia
I think Michalczewski achieved more than Golota, although Golota never ducked anybody, its just fight with tyson that sort of sticks in my mind a bit, where i think he refused to go out for the third round i think, about Claude Noel, i dont really know much about the guy, but i remember some old bloke in the pub telling me about when pompey fought archie moore he was giving him quite a few problems then bang moore switched on and battered the poor guy. couldnt think of many more guys from trinidad & tobago.
The plot thickens. It is a dificult comparison to make but Dixon was probably the greatest gloved fighter who had breathed up to that point. He was at the least in the same category as Joe Gans and Joe Walcott, perhaps the daddy of the black dynamite crew.
Dixon could very well have been the greatest talent of his time, Janitor, and I've certainly came across written opinions from the time that seemed to consider him exactly that. Personally, though, I think in my travels through the papers of the time I've came across just a tiny bit more contemporary stuff from those times that seems to support Fitzsimmons as the best talent of Dixon's time, but Dixon was quite possibly the second best talent of the day, just ahead of the likes of Tommy Ryan, Walcott, Kid McCoy, McGovern and maybe one or two others. It my travels, Walcott seemed to have gained just a little bit more respect near the very end of his career and shortly after he retired, as I've come across many different writings during that time stating that it was Walcott who Langford was being compared to and attempting to supplant as the best black fighter of the gloved era. Joe Gans, conversely, while always talked about extremely highly in his time, well, in my readings I've found him to have gained more respect as the "best of all-time" some time after he died, as I've mostly came across those opinions when going into McLarnin's time during the 20's & 30's. All of them had their support in the papers as being the "best" and I think it quite simply all depends on what one has come across during their visits through those old days via the papers of the times. The three of them were definate greats during their time, and thus, definate greats for all of time. As was McLarnin too, though, who himself was being talked about amongst the very best fighters of his time, and who also had support by some who considered him the "best" during particular time periods. I'm not one for these all-time rankings, but if I was to do one, I don't think I would get 25, maybe 30 deep before all four of those guys are getting mentioned somewhere.