Was the ring mag annual 1999 P4P ratings the best top 10 P4P in the history of the sport

Robinson, Charles, Moore and Pep were all inarguably at their peaks. Four top 15 P4P staples IMO, three top ten guys. The Murderer's Row, Jake LaMotta, Manuel Ortiz and one of the deepest lightweight divisions ever.

My top ten would probably be:

#10. Manuel Ortiz
#09. Holman Williams
#08. Charley Burley
#07. Ike Williams
#06. Jake LaMotta
#05. Archie Moore
#04. Joe Louis
#03. Willie Pep
#02. Ezzard Charles
#01. Sugar Ray Robinson

Then of course, you have the rest of the Murderer's Row, the rest of the crazy deep bantamweight and lightweight divisions, you have an up-and-coming Sandy Saddler, you have an up-and-coming Kid Gavilan, you have Tony Zale as champion, Conn and Walcott as a top heavyweight contender, Joey Maxim amongst the top light-heavyweights. And many, many others.

 

Well i need a 10 at least to break it down. I'm pretty sure Williams wasn't the top lightweight in 46 so he's probably out. Charles would not have made the P4P top 10 in 46 as it would have been ranked at the time etc

There's a lot of context to be taken into account.

 

Your list is done looking back and taking into account the future i reckon George. I honestly doubt Charles would make the list if it was compiled at the time. Williams as well. LaMotta wasn't rated the top middleweight etc

 

Charles was seen as the best LHW - well above Lesnevich. And Williams won the title in 1946. Moore might not have been ranked then, but he should've been. That's the benefit of doing this in hindsight.

 

Is that a bad thing?

We now know Archie Moore was one of best in the world. They wouldn't have rated him as such then.

Just because they didn't appreciate him, doesn't mean I can't.

And everyone on my list was at their best, or the best in their division.

 

We'll continue tomorrow. Charles in Feb 46 wasn't even ranked in the Ring annual ratings which is where Mark has pulled his list from. In Feb 47 he was rated 3 at 175. I'm extremely confident he would have made a Ring top #10. Of course everything depends on how we want to compile the list i guess. In Feb 47 Fox was rated above both Charles and Moore. Zale in both years above Jake etc

 

Yeah it boils down to how we play it out i guess. I'll dig deeper tomorrow.

 

Um, nobody was.

 

Get back on topic, Mark.

 

That is a very strong line-up, for sure.

 

That's some list, I'd say it's a level above the class of 99.

 

I hear ya.

From '80-82 was there an eye-popping amount of talent. Underlining this were the consecutive Super-Fights we got, from 'The Brawl in Montreal' to 'No Mas', Leonard-Hearns I to Sanchez-Gomez, and Arguello-Pryor I to Holmes-Cooney (the latter was at least a big event for a great heavyweight).

But how the winds changed as the clock struck '83 - Holmes began to slide, Leonard had retired, Sanchez was no more, Pryor had reached his zenith with Arguello failing at further glory, Benitez imploded after losing to Hearn's, and Gomez had left 122 lbs for good after beating the breaks off Pintor.

Outside of War, it's hard to think of a single year in which so many careers were forever altered as 1982.

And it just occurred, the passing of Du Koo Kim essentially axed 15 rounds.

Yikes.