Greb basically had a whole career in 1919. He beat the other best middleweight out there in Mike Gibbons, as well as the arguable LHW champion Battling Levinsky, also genuine top contenders like Billy Miske, Soldier Bartfueld, Jeff Smith, Mike McTigue, Bill Brennan. That year alone is better than most resumes.
Joe Louis' title defenses are probably my #1 achievement in boxing in terms of verifiable statistical greatness.
All are very impressive, but for me Roberto Duran beating top fighters in 27 years timespan is probably more impressive than any of them. At 18 Duran beat future ATG Ernesto Marcel as a super featherweight, at 45 he beat very recent former world champion Jorge Castro at super middleweight. I think it may top any of the feats mentioned above
Pacquiao’s 8 weight achievement seems to be the one which would be hardest to replicate. I don’t think we’ll ever see anybody accomplish that feat again. For a while it looked pretty feasible that Wlad could have broken Louis’ record and I think it’s still possible that it can be broken. Armstrong’s 3 simultaneous titles mostly hinges on the simultaneous part to be so impressive because triple weight champs are a dime a dozen these days and Pac accomplished that same thing in the same divisions even if he was only an alphabet champ at 135. I think as more and more emphasis is placed on fighters’ 0, records like Greb’s, SRR’s, and Wilde’s will become more and more of a target for some fighters. Chavez very nearly beat Wilde’s record and some of the Thai guys who fight nearly every month or two have amassed some shocking records (like Salapat’s current 75-1 record or Moonsri’s 54-0 record). Buck Smith was something like 112-4-2 at some point, so the guys you face have to be as impressive as the amount of times you fight. For many of these incredible records, the bulk of the numbers were made up of journeymen and cabbies, which isn’t all that impressive by today’s standards. For me, Pac is the most impressive.
IMO In order: Armstrong holding titles @ 3 major weights simultaneously Greb unofficially going 45-0 in 1919 Jimmy Wilde going undefeated in his first 106(?) fights SRR going 129-1-2 to start his career Joe Louis' still-record 26 title defenses Pacquiao winning titles across 8 divisions Eventually I can see 26 title defenses being broken. I can also see someone one day winning titles across 8* divisions (Pac really only won in titles in 7 divisions but I'm not getting into that). The other 4 things, will never happen again............there's not even the remotest possibility of them happening.
Undisputedly Pacquaio’s fete in the evolved modern era He beat full time athletes benefitting from the sports evolution The others on the list didn’t A lot if not most of the Boxers had full time jobs as well as Boxing Todays athletes benefitted from sports science, strength conditioning, video and tailored sparring, longer preparation in training camps Everything gets better Nothing beats evolution Fans might have their personal favourites but nothing beats evolution 8 weight classes is phenomenal There are only 16 Even if he was champion at 4 weights, not including the junior and super weights, in the modern era is way more impressive A lot of the others on the list fought poor, unrefined men not even athletes Nothing beats evolution
I'm with you for Armstrong being the most impressive. Three titles in three divisions at the same time back then was no joke.
If nothing beats evolution, how come these new fighters can’t go 15 rounds? Why fight once a year if you have all this super science?
