Sugar Ray Robinson? Set up an ideal career run that would set up a modern boxer to be p4p better than Sugar Ray. #1 GOAT. Keep in mind the modern standard of fighting at most three times a year (when still coming up) and then dwindling down to two when at the peak of fame and then being a one fight a year fighter. Say this mostly so that numbers of fights per career do not become an issue to debate.
think about Pac's last 2 years, and imagine he pulled off another 4-5 years of wins in that fashion. PS. Obviously i don't think he'll do it. But lets say hypothetically... He fights Mayweather and beats him on cards in May 2010. Meanwhile Berto beats Mosley and defends his title by knocking out someone like say Zab Judah. Pac fights Berto in October 2010 and knocks him out. Meanwhile Khan has been getting some clout at 140 with a KO over Salita, a unification win against Bradley, and then a stoppage win over a faded JMM in a stateside fight. Khan moves up to 147 to challenge Pacquiao in March 2011 and Pac knocks him out in devastating fashion. Khan goes on to win a major title at 147 after Pac retires and establishes himself as a HOF fighter. After fighting Khan, Pac fights Valero at 140 who is now 30-0 with 30 knockouts and knocks him out in 4 rounds... continue the pattern.
Theres no way, sugar Ray robinson had a pro career with an AM style record in the PROs. He proved without a doubt he was #1. Todays boxing, they wouldnt let them go at it more than once without heavey thinking...he fought everyone there was to fight...
Yes, I know about the numbers but let's be relative about it. Floyd is right in that nowadays it takes six months to do all the promotional work and training. It's very hard for a fighter to measure up to the old fighters on fight numbers and win numbers. However one could argue that they are better prepared once they enter the ring. And some people think the technique involved today, maybe because of greater emphasis on training, is more highly evolved. So we have to imagine a fighter by today's standards doing what is unthinkable, outdoing the greatest legend of the past.
Let a WHOLE lot of time pass...that's about it. No matter what they accomplish, no fighter out right now will ever be ranked as high as Sugar Ray Robinson. However, I think Pacquiao might knock SRR off at least some lists if he goes on some kind of magical run...beating Mayweather, Mosley, and Paul Williams, for instance. But that won't happen.
This totally makes sense. The regulations back then weren't as strict. Also pretty much anyone could be a boxer and get a fight. They had to fight to keep eating. It wasn't like these days where one big fight and you could quit if you wanted. As for the training, he's absolutely correct. The sweet science has come just as far as our medical breakthroughs. They are training and fighting smarter than ever before. The safety restrictions are far far tighter than they use to be in the past. And the fighters are still just as dangerous if not more dangerous. Heck lots of fighters could pad their win columns just by picking off lots of bums along the way. The guys of the past have a ton of fights under their belts, but I bet if you look at their record you wouldn't even know half of the guys on there. 25% if you're really deep into the sport.
If Mayweather went on to beat Mosley Pac Williams Berto Bradley James Kirkland Pavlik Arthur Abraham Andre Ward Bute Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson he would have to be in the running for greatest fighter of all time no? im messing about..... i dont know, to me it seems like the standards are a bit high....
I think it's impossible for any fighter of this era to get anywhere near SRR. It's not because they lack the talent, just that they dont take on the sort of challenges that SRR did. Further, its more-or-less impossible for them to take on those sort of challenges. This is why all time rankings annoy the **** out of me these days. We might as well just ignore the 10 ten places on the all time rankings and start from about 14 since the top places are all edged in stone and nobody will ever be able to get there. Probably we should just ignore the whole concept since it clearly favors fighters of times gone by. I choose not to get into all time rankings now. All I will consider are H2H hypotheticals; i.e., how would fighter a ( from this era) fare against fighter b (from that era) - an equally troublesome concept but at least modern fighters have a chance. And I dont care what anybody says, I will give the current version of PAC at 140 a good shot to beat anyone in history.
