Whose your secret “great”?~

Manuel Ortiz- Won title in 1942 held for 5 years, made a record division 15 defences, only KOd once.
Not on here much, dont think he gets the reconition that resume warrants, made more defences than Monzon in 2 fewer years !

 

Wes Ramey, Jeff Fenech, Tommy Ryan, Sumbu Kalambay. None of them absolutely elite or crème de la crème in the grand scheme of things, I guess, but they are amongst a few fighters who I tend to think get sold pretty short. It's all relative of course, but I routinely see guys from their own eras or within their weight classes rated way ahead of them, when the gaps are actually very small.

 

John L Sullivan made over 20 defenses from what ive seen . one of the longest reigning champs . ruled a whole era .

 

I think Legra, Famechon and Winstone were all fantastic fighters who had great careers and were all better than Hamed, for example, but Hamed I see talked about by some as a great whereas none of that trio made the HOF and get very underrated today in general.

 

I always catch flack for this but Kelly Pavlik, beat killers like Miranda ( at the time) on the way up, back to backed Taylor, 4 successful title defenses, his only 2 losses he went up 2 weight classes to fight Hopkins, recovered from MRSA and barley made weight and was clearly drained against Martiniz and still controlled the middle rounds of that fight, I still think had he stayed away from the booze and the trouble he’d be much more respected

 

Did he ? I must have missed something.

 

Jiro Watanabe seemed to be Flyweight Champion forever in the 80's.

 

Probably the best super flyweight ever. Him or Roman.

 

The more I read on George Dixon, the more he goes up in my rankings. It's speculated he may have been in 32 lineal title fights. More than Louis! That's a record! Plus, he beat one of the best talents ever.

 

Who would that be?

 

He did beat Griffo, right? Or have I misremembered something.

 

Sublime post, Chris. I'm not surprised

 

He's highly regarded and respected by the purists

 

Anyone consider Jorge Castro as a great?

 

Interesting how the lightest weights are shortchanged on occasion.