Which fighter proved themselves against the most diverse range of GREAT fighters?

Duran was 29 years old in his prime when Leonard fought him. Hagler had not lost in 11 years.

 

Granted. It's mainly my thoughts of the actual 'greatness' of Mathis, Young and Ellis that have me questioning the assumption around Ali. Duran did 'swarm' at times against Leonard, but when someone says swarmer to me, my mind tends to turn to the likes of Harada, Greb and Armstrong rather than Duran, who I might classify as a boxer-puncher on first thought. Fair points you make though.

Yeah....same as above really.

 

I'm not saying they were bad in any sense, but Duran wasn't quite as fast at WW as he was at LW and Hagler had clearly lost speed due to age. I certainly didn't mean to take anything away from Leonard's victories. I was just saying that Hagler had lost a step since chasing down Hearns and Duran since beating Buchanan. Duran had advanced in other areas since then I'd say, though.

 

But Duran had evolved into a more complete, patient and well-rounded fighter as compared to his earliest days at lightweight, whereas the Hagler of the Leonard fight had clearly lost more than a step to my eye.

 

Ali no one has ever beaten the range of fighter he did he defeated Liston Frazier Foreman and Norton all ATGs, Liston was a boxer puncher with a great jab skills and power, Frazier was one of the greatest swarmers, Foreman was arguably the strongest most powerful puncher in history and Norton was one of the best clever spoiling type fighters, no one ever defeated such a diverse range of ATG fighters.

 

Fitting that he's the first mention, since he was the first to pop in my head after internalizing the phrase "diversity of styles conquered in quality wins". :good

 

Chang did okay in beating Chitalada, Zapata, Torres and Tokashiki, not akk were great but all world class at the least. People say his win over Zapata was tainted because of Zapata's apparent condition, but it looks a good performance to me!

 

Fighting Harada beat great and world class fighters (either technically or simply effectively) of varying styles in-

Eder Jofre (you try and define him, because i can't), at times he seems to be an offensive boxing technician, and sometimes he just seems to be a fighter, a very skilled one with surgeon-like precision

Alan Rudkin- a pure boxing technician

Hiroyuki Ebihara- on film, seems to be one of the best technicians the lower weights ever saw

Pone Kingpetch- doesn't seem to have the biggest toolbox to me, but a great jab nonetheless, was a champion in a fine era himself.

Jose Medel- would do some boxing in mid-ring but was always looking to unload and fight it out applying pressure (from what i've seen), Harada seemed to be able to put him on the backfoot though.

 

How would you break down their styles? Would you agree with the following classifications?

Welsh - pure boxer
Kilbane - pure boxer
Britton - pure boxer
Dundee - pure boxer
Tendler - boxer puncher
Ritchie - boxer puncher
White - boxer puncher
Bartfield - boxer puncher?
Ted Kid Lewis - swarmer
Kansas - swarmer?

Did Leonard ever beat a great or near great puncher? Not one I can think of....

Do you think I've categorised the following guys correctly?

Gans - boxer puncher
Blackburn - boxer puncher
Holly - boxer puncher
McFadden - boxer puncher
Jeanette - boxer puncher
Clark - boxer puncher
Walcott - puncher
Jackson - puncher
Ketchel - puncher
McVea - puncher
Wills - puncher
O'Brien - pure boxer or boxer puncher?

In light of which, did Sam ever beat a great or near great swarmer? Would you classify O'Brien as a pure boxer?

Haven't got time to do it now, but if you can or anyone else would like to, would you like to break down into which categories these guys belong? Cheers:good

 

Good call, even though Dempsey and Carpentier were a little past their best and perhaps Loughran a little prior to his peak. :good

 

This could work if you could classify Duran as a swarmer. Not sure I would, but he definitely fought his first fight with Leonard quite swarmer-sih.

 

Break it down :good

 

I'd give Young a pass as an excellent (thought not great) pure boxer that Ali beat, but really, that was a robbery so I'm not sure Ali should get a pass on that one.

 

Wouldn't you say that Jack Blackburn was more a boxer puncher than a pure boxer?

Even if that's the case though, I guess Gans would still have Young Griffo to fall back on, although even there some qualify it and say Girffo was past prime. I think Gans did arguably win their first contests though, and I guess that was a near enough to prime Griffo to accept.