Your Top Ten At 175lbs?

Only in your mind. Not in the minds of fans that actually know the sport.....

 

He’d be a sacrificial lamb against nearly every top ten LHW.

 

Yep. Call me arrogant or condescending, but 50-0-3 at or around the weight, wins over Rosenbloom x 2, Tiger Jack Fox, Al Gainer etc, i can only assume JHL's omission on most of these lists is due to a lack of research.

 

By this criteria, how many fights did Charles have where both he and his opponent were under 180? I think it’s less than 20 from about 122

 

Prime RJJ is nigh on invincible, so it's not just in my mind. The man had superhuman speed and reflexes.

 

He had 30 x fights contested between 164.1lbs & 180lbs, going 27-2-1.

His 2 losses were to Bivins & Marshall, both aged 21 & both avenged.

He beat Archie Moore x 3, Jimmy Bivins, Lloyd Marshall x 2, Oakland Billy Smith, Teddy Yarosz & Anton Christoforidis in fights contested within this range.

When I compiled my top 20 lists in the original 8 weight divisions, SRR @ WW was the only clearer divisional #1. Incidentally, I remember being surprised when doing my research that SRR only had 39 fights contested within the weight range I considered as WW (under 151lbs for non-title fights).

 

The fighter ranked highest on my LHW list, that doesn't appear on McVey's excellent lists, is my #11, Tommy Gibbons.

 

Yeah he only had 15 x fights contested at >164lbs & <= 180lbs, going 14-1.

The loss was to Charles and those 14 wins included Charles, Marshall, Maxim, Lesnevich, Christoforidis, Yarosz, Soose, Bolden & Sheppard. I wonder if this is amongst the best quality to quantity ratio, win resume in any division in history.

 

10. Harold Johnson.
9. Billy Conn.
8. John Henry Lewis.
7. Jimmy Bivins.
6. Tommy Loughran.
5. Michael Spinks.
4. Gene Tunney.
3. Archie Moore.
2. Harry Greb.
1. Ezzard Charles.

Guys like Rosembloom, Muhammad and Michalzewski could be added to the list.

 

I have Rosenbloom all the way down at #22.

He'd easily be top 10 on a list purely based on win resumes.

He was 123-30-20 in fights contested above 164lbs and not above 180lbs. According to my notes, I considered 26 of those loses to be in his prime years (prime used loosely, as they include fights he lost aged 19, but he was vastly experienced already at that age and winning fights that contribute significantly to his win resume).

Amazing record, but, for example, going 3-3 with Lou Scozza, 2-1-3 with Bob Goodwin, 1-1-1 with Fred Lenhart, 0-1-1 with Joe Knight, 3-2-1 with Leo Lomski, 1-1 with Pete Latzo, whilst very credible, isnt the sort of dominance that impresses me that most of my top 20 demonstrated.

Very difficult to rank, though, I'm with you there.

 

Ezzard Charles
Harry Greb
Michael Spinks
Gene Tunney
Archie Moore
Tommy Loughran
John Henry Lewis
Jimmy Bivins
Harold Johnson
Bob Foster

 

I like this list, especially if it's in order.

 

Great thread, McVey.
I've got
1.Charles
2 Moore
3 Langford
4 Tunney
5 Foster
6Conn
7 Spinks
8Loughran
9 Jimmy Bivins
10 RJJ