what fighter can realistically get close to PBF level of greatness

duck threats

 

Always fight at home.
Run from opponents in ring.
Duck opponents outside the ring.
Choose opponents gloves.
Avoid prime opponents.
Only use preferred refs.
Accuse opponents of cheating.
Bribe drug testing body.
Hire steroid chemist.
Use PEDs and flush them with IV.

Claim "greatness" to casuals.

 

Just don't bother man. You can't have an educational, trolling-free thread on Mayweather/Pacquaio/Golovkin/Ward here.

 

But a TBE cap on and call himself the best ever and he'd been as accurate as Mayweather is.

 

Broner if he mives up to lmw mw. Smw lhw and beats klitschko

 

Speaking of "bad at math" unless I truly am, than 24 world title fights is NOT over half of 49.

 

Andre Ward could cut it close.

 

carlos baldomir was one of the world champions he beat. there's no greatness in that

 

Hate me, but in terms of comparing to those stats....Santa Cruz is the only one capable! BEFORE YOU SCREAM LET ME EXPLAIN!

Fighters like Ward, GGG, and Kovalev are great. But unfortunately they fight around divisions that don't have enough fighters to propel them beyond HOF status.

Take Kovalev for example. Say he defeats both Stevenson and Ward. That would surely put him as the #1 p4p in the world and a future HOF, but after that.....what? There would be no one else to propel him above HOF status. Even if Kovalev moved up in weight and captured a few titles at cruiser, those divisions are so pathetically weak that they still wouldn't make him a "legend" or "ATG". And the same would be true for any fighter at 168, 160, and perhaps even Canelo.

In order to become a "legend" or "ATG", you can only do 2 things. Defeat a couple of other ATGs (this is what Ali, Leonard, etc.. did) or defeat a great amount of champions/HOF for many years (this is what Chavez or Floyd did).

Option 1 is currently not possible due to the boxing landscape, so any fighter that wants to become a legend needs to do Option 2. Now Option 2 requires youth, lots of great competition and future opportunity.

Santa Cruz has youth, which means he has many many years more of boxing which would allow him to build up his resume if he keeps going (Lomachenko is too old). He also has plenty of competition. Santa Cruz is already beat Mares and is a champion, and he can still fight the winner of Quigg/Frampton......OR if he wants to go ***** the wall he could fight Rigo, a win over Rigo would surpass even Floyd's victory against Corrales. Then Santa Cruz could have plenty of good years if at 126/130 he could fight Lomachenko, Walters, Mickey Garcia, Gamboa, etc...LASTLY Santa Cruz has opportunity! Right now he is tall skinny, which means that in his later years he could definitely put on some weight and one day reach the Welterweights (just like Floyd and Manny). And then he could fight the Thurmans, Alis, Crawfords, or whatever champions are around by then.

Should Santa Cruz follow the plan I just laid out and win the vast majority of these fights...he would without a doubt become a true legend of the sport.

 

Not many. It's why he's an all time great?

But let's not pretend he's exclusive and cut above the rest, I can name 100 other All Time Great's. A few from around when he fought too.

 

This helps. Floyd was a great boxer at super featherweight but he was just a great grappler at welterweight.

With all the belts floating around, WBA has like five per division, 17 divisions, four or five major sanctioning bodies, beating champs is easier than ever. With all those divisions and the next day weigh ins guys can start small and grow through two divisions naturally, cut 15-20 lbs of weight and go through two more that way, so weight climbing isn't as big a deal.

Pacquiao is at roughly the same level of greatness as Floyd. Hopkins and Jones have more title fights than Floyd.

If Ward dominates light heavyweight like he did super middleweight beating Kovalev somehow, on top of the Froch win, that would go a long way toward putting him up with Floyd and the others.

Roman Gonzalez has enough really good opponents around him that if he beat them all, and stepped up another division to beat Inoue and Narvaez that would help seal the deal. Gonzalez already has Estrada, Viloria, Sosa, Yaegashi, and 14 title fights.

Gennady Golovkin's clock is ticking and he's still having trouble getting opponents, but he's pretty amazing and already has 13 title fights.

I'd say that at least two fighters per decade attain Floyd's level of greatness, which is why in the ATG gloved era rankings he's only about top 30-40.