I'm not sure Diego Corrales should be eligible. He has defeated good opposition in Freitas, Casamayor, and Castillo, and unified the WBC and WBO belts at Lightweight. I'd say Corrales was a great fighter, not only because of his half decent resume, and success at multiple weights, but because he had a huge heart, and gave us one of the greatest fights of all time.
Gatti had all of those qualities as well, that doesn't make him a great fighter. You need to have the skills as well, which neither Gatti nor Chico had. Chico probably would fall short of a top 200-250 list in an all time sense, that hardly qualifies him as a great fighter.
Chuvalo - all heart/chin/strength and a helluva charming guy whose been to hell & back Emanuel Augustus, Glen Johnson - gimmes for this thread Monte Barrett Gabriel Ruelas
We can disagree on this Sweet Pea, but Aturo Gatti was never on the same level as a Diego Corrales. Gatti did indeed have a huge heart and gave us some of the greatest fights of the last 20 years, but when he stepped up the competition he always fell short. Diego Corrales, on the other hand, beat some of the best fighters in his division. Castillo, Casamayor, and Freitas are solid wins, and although I definitely see your point about Corrales not quite being great, we shouldn't be comparing him to Gatti. Corrales was a level above.
Curtis Parker Robbie Sims Alberto Davila Armando Muniz Ralph 'Tiger' Jones Frank Fletcher Iran Barkley Juan LaPorte Murray Sutherland Rafael Limon Rockin' Robin Blake
Always pulled for Raymond Joval. My Dio Hurtado love is well-documented. Paul Briggs. Trash Nakanuma. I may not be clear on exactly where the acceptable "line" is drawn for the purposes of this thread. I mean, does Chapo Rosario qualify, or is he too good for the simply "good" side of great?
It's subjective. I think Corrales was a great fighter all things considered, he was good enough to beat the best in his division, and he had a lot of good qualities. His heart and power could see him overcome more talented fighters. Donovan Ruddock is a good example. Good fighter, destroyed Weaver and Dokes, and gave Tyson a good scrap in their rematch, but he never held a world title and his right hand was non existent. No inside game either, became completely dependent on his left hook. Corrales was a world champion, in two weight divisions, and beat the likes of Freitas, Casamayor, and Castillo. I don't know, Corrales might not be great but he wasn't exactly the kind of fighter I was looking for in this thread.
Yeah, Chico would seem to automatically be discounted by virtue of the multiple titles and accomplishments. I guess by those very same standards, Chapo too would need to be considered better than merely "good" - not to mention, I think he's borderline if not outright great in a historical H2H sense. I'm pretty sure nobody's arguing the case for Briggs or Trash as an ATG (but certainly they could give any ATG a wild night), and being that I'm fairly confident I'm the #1 (if not only) advocate on ESB for either Hallelujah or Black Money, it's my honor to relegate them both on behalf of all fans to "good but not great" status. :yep So I'll stand by those 4.
curtis parker frank animal fletcher bunny stirling george feeney bert cooper pat cowdell ron lyle mike weaver tommy farr jerry quarry cornelius boza edwards
For me it has to be Mark "too sharp" Johnson. I just loved watching this guy fight, and I thought he had enough ability to beat anyone around his weightclass at that time. Most people have seen his "matrix" antics on the internet but there was much more to him than that. He had great upper body movement and his offensive arsenal was very good for a guy that was noted for being hard to hit. There was talk of a 110lb catchweight fight with Ricardo Lopez, and I seriously think he would have beaten him. Johnny Tapia avoided him like the plague and a possible big fight with Michael Carbajal never materialised either which was a shame. When he was announced the winner against Rafa I was so happy (it was overturned of course though). And to come back from the 2 losses to Rafa to be the only guy in my opinion to beat Fernando Montiel was special. Unfortunately he never got the big fights in his prime that his talent deserved, and probably would have been more appreciated had he been from anywhere other than the States. H2H at Fly and Super-Fly, he's a demon.