Who is the best boxer ever?

On record, Harry Greb. And he may have peaked in Tulsa the same day Dempsey crushed Willard in Toledo. 105 years ago yesterday, before the largest crowd in Tulsa history, he swarmed KO Bill Brennan over the Championship Distance.

Burt Bienstock's father was a huge Gene Tunney fan in 1922 when he witnessed Greb hand Tunney Gene's only career defeat. It's widely reported that Harry got the best of Tunney over their five bout rivalry. The only bout which no ringside reporter gave to Harry was their fifth, Gene regarded him so highly that he was one of the pallbearers at Harry's funeral.

Burt insisted that Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest fighter he ever witnessed, but his father, who lived into the 1980's, always said Greb was Number One. At 5'8" he shut out 6'3" Martin Burke.

45-0 in 1919 is insane. He was noticeably past his best when he dominated Mickey Walker in his final successful MW Title defense, a bout even Walker conceded in his autobiography was won by Harry.

"Hell, Harry Greb is faster than Benny Leonard!" - Jack Dempsey.

His record's off the charts crazy. Go to his Wiki page.

Justify? Whole books have been published on that by Springs Toledo and Steve Compton.

Hope springs eternal that the film of Greb-Tunney I or Greb-Walker will some day surface.


Sports reporting for print was a high art form back then and Greb did not suffer any lack of that.

2) SRR

3) Gans

4) Langford

5) Duran

6) Pep

 

Greb beat heavyweights like it was Tuesday, unlike Robinson who didn’t go above 175 lbs.

 

There are a few candidates for GOAT. SRR is the de facto answer these days because he was the most consistent in his prime and looked very good on film. Greb has the deepest resume. Armstrong has the 3 titles at featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight. Langford has wins from lightweight to heavyweight. Duran has the domination of 135, the SRL win, and winning the title at 154 and 160 (doing the latter when he was very far past his prime no less). Gans and Benny Leonard both have claims as the greatest ever lightweight, which is the deepest division historically. Ezzard Charles has an argument as the GOAT of 175, the HW champ, going 3-0 against Moore, and beating a number of the Murderer’s Row gang. If you’re putting emphasis on the lb for lb part, then you might even say Jimmy Wilde for his incredible feat of going (roughly) 103-0 and often against men who outweighed him by 10, 15, or even 20 lbs. Some might say Ali since he’s the greatest HW. Pep has his incredible record and the fact he’s the greatest ever featherweight. Abe Attell has somewhat of an argument. Fitz has the fact that he’s the first ever 3-weight champion and the fact he beat men much larger than him regularly. My personal pick is Manny Pacquiao though, since he’s the most accomplished and, imo, is the best embodiment of a P4P fighter.

 

Greb, Sanchez, Duran, Langford, Griffith.

 

You should clarify that you're not actually looking for a "P4P best."

 

The OP seems to be trying to choke an admission from us that by definition, a heavyweight must therefore be the best fighter in the world.

As our friends across the pond might say, what a load of bollocks.

The question of "best fighter" means just that. It is irrespective of weight. The best fighter possesses the best skills and fighting spirit. And, as we all know (or should know), heavyweights suck.

So, Greb. The answer is Greb.

 

Pure boxer, as in pure boxing ability, I’d go Willie Pep.

Anyone who happens to pay attention to my posts knows I’m a huge Sandy Saddler fan, but Willie was sublime in his boxing ability.

Not necessarily the best fighter, but when it comes to the sweetest of sweet scientists, I think Pep was without peer.

 

Ezzard Charles as pound for pound number 1.

Sugar Ray Leonard with the most attributes and complete boxer. He won an Olympic Gold Medalist and is a 5 times weight division champion.

Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali maybe the most well known

George Foreman the most remarkable.

 

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Just look at the old comics of him.
Greb was talked about like a force of nature.

 

On the question of P4P best, I'd say it's a toss-up between Greb & Robinson.

Robinson is the greatest all-around talent ever IMO, while Greb has the greatest resume ever IMO.

Everyone else comes up short in both of those departments.

 

All Robby had to do on a night with torrid heat and humidity was simply stand on his feet for six more minutes and he would won the LHW Title against a Champion who had defeated JJW and would later hand a young Floyd Patterson his first defeat. (As it was, Ray took so much out of Joey that he lost it too Moore in his next defense and couldn't regain in in two return challenges.)

SRR was ahead of Maxim 7-3-3, 10-3 and 9-3-1 on the official cards. No way Maxim wins of the bout had been postponed as considered until that heat wave broke.

 

On film the best boxer of all time is probably Henry Armstrong he is just about peerless.

 

If its H2H Foreman P4P probably Langford.