Division by division: The greatest fighters of all time (Ring)

[Chrismart]

*The following article appears in the December 2021 issue of The Ring Magazine.*

A PANEL OF HISTORY-MINDED EDITORS, SCRIBES AND PUNDITS CONTRIBUTED THEIR TOP FIVE FIGHTERS IN ALL 17 OF THE MODERN WEIGHT CLASSES TO DETERMINE THE BEST OF THE BEST IN EACH DIVISION

Boxing as we know it has been around since the Queensberry rules came into place in 1867. However, it wasn’t until 1903 that all eight of the original weight classes – flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight – were firmly established.

With the advent of “junior” and “super” weight classes over the decades, the number gradually expanded from eight to 17 – possibly 18 if the WBC’s fledgling bridgerweight gets off the ground – and while that’s way too many in the opinion of boxing purists, we have also witnessed a plethora of outstanding fighters occupy each division.

As a teenager, this writer was captivated by the cover feature for the May 1994 issue – entitled “Division-by-Division: The Greatest Fighters of All-Time,” penned by then-Editor-In-Chief Steve Farhood – and, as an adult, I wondered just how things would look in each weight class over a quarter of a century later.

To single out and rank the best fighters of all time in every division is a very difficult and subjective task. The Ring enlisted the services of various historians and writers, including Steve Farhood, current Editor-In-Chief Doug Fischer, Managing Editor Tom Gray, Lee Groves, Stephen Edwards, Cliff Rold, Bob Yalen and myself.

Anson Wainwright reached out to each of the panel and asked them for their top five in each division. Once I had everyone’s compilations, I assigned five points for the No. 1 selections, four points for No. 2, three points for No. 3 and so on, then totaled up everyone’s scores.
.................................

Heavyweight
1. Muhammad Ali
2. Joe Luis
3. Larry Holmes
4. Lennox Lewis
5. Jack Johnson

A Notch Below: George Foreman, Jack Dempsey, Rocky Marciano, Evander Holyfield

Cruiserweight
1. Evander Holyfield
2. Oleksandr Usyk
3. Carlos De Leon
4. David Haye
5. Juan Carlos Gomez

A Notch Below: Johnny Nelson, James Toney, Vassiliy Jirov, Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Jean-Marc Mormeck

Light Heavyweight
1. Ezzard Charles
2. Archie Moore
3. Bob Foster
4. Michael Spinks
5. Gene Tunney

A Notch Below: Roy Jones Jr., Sam Langford, Tommy Loughran

Super Middleweight
1. Joe Calzaghe
2. Roy Jones Jr
3. Andre Ward
4. James Toney
5. Carl Froch

A Notch Below: Mikkel Kessler, Sven Ottke, Nigel Benn, Steve Collins, Lucian Bute, Canelo Alvarez

Middleweight
1. Sugar Ray Robinson
2. Carlos Monzon
3. Harry Greb
4. Marvin Hagler
5. Bernard Hopkins

A Notch Below: Jake LaMotta, Stanley Ketchel

Jnr Middleweight
1. Thomas Hearns
2. Mike MaCcallum
3. Terry Norris
4. Winky Wright
5. Nino Benvenuti

A Notch Below: Emile Griffith, Felix Trinidad, Ayub Kalule, Koichi Wajima, Sandro Mazzinghi, Julian Jackson

Welterweight
1. Sugar Ray Robinson
2. Sugar Ray Leonard
3. Henry Armstrong
4. Thomas Hearns
5. Jose Napoles

A Notch Below: Floyd Mayweather Jr., Kid Gavilan, Emile Griffith, Felix Trinidad, Manny Pacquiao

Jnr Welterweight
1. Julio Cesar Chavez
2. Aaryon Pryor
3. Kostya Tszyu
4. Barney Ross
5. Antonio Cervantes

A Notch Below: Nicolino Locche, Jack Kid Berg, Oscar De La Hoya

Lightweight
1. Roberto Duran
2. Benny Leonard
3. Joe Gans
4. Pernell Whitaker
5. Ike Williams

A Notch Below: Tony Canzoneri, Henry Armstrong, Carlos Ortiz

Jnr Lightweight
1. Alexis Arguello
2. Floyd Mayweather
3. Julio Cesar Chaves
4. Azumah Nelson
5. Manny Pacquiao

A Notch Below: Flash Elorde, Kid Chocolate, Brian Mitchell

Featherweight
1. Willie Pep
2. Salvador Sanchez
3. Henry Armstrong
4. Sandy Saddler
5. Abe Attell

A Notch Below: Eusebio Pedroza, Vicente Saldivar, George Dixon, Naseem Hamed

Jnr Featherweight
1. Wilfredo Gomez
2. Marco Antonio Barrera
3. Erik Morales
4. Guillermo Rigondeaux
5. Daniel Zaragoza

A Notch below: Wilfredo Vasquez, Vuyani Bungu, Israel Vasquez, Jeff Fenech, Nonito Donaire, Manny Pacquiao

Bantamweight
1. Eder Jofre
2. Ruben Olivares
3. Carlos Zarate
4. Manuel Ortiz
5. Panama Al Brown

A Notch Below: Terry McGovern, Orlando Canizales, Veeraphol Sahaprom, Naoya Inoue

Jnr Batamweight
1. Khaosai Galaxy
2. Jiro Watanabe
3. Johnny Tapia
4. Gilberto Roman
5. Sung Kil Moon

A Notch Below: Vic Darchinyan, Juan Francisco Estrada, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai

Flyweight
1. Jimmy Wilde
2. Miguel Canto
3. Pascual Perez
4. Pancho Villa
5. Frankie Genaro

A Notch Below: Fidel LaBarba, Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Benny Lynch, Mark Johnson, Roman Gonzalez

Jnr Flyweight
1. Michael Carbajal
2. Humberto Gonzalez
3. Jung Koo Chang
4. Hilario Zapata
5. Roman Gonzalez

A Notch Below: Myung Woo Yuh, Yoko Gushiken, Ricardo Lopez

Strawweight
1. Ricardo Lopez
2. Ivan Calderon
3. Roman Gonzalez
4. Rosendo Alvarez
5. Chana Porpaoin

A Notch Below: Ratanapol Sor Vorapin, Wanheng Menayothin, Zolani Petelo

[Chrismart]

The article in more detail :

https://www.ringtv.com/627200-divisi...s-of-all-time/

How each expert voted (fighter and divisions): https://www.ringtv.com/628047-dbd-voting-stats/

[davef]

Probably going to get shot down in flames but floyd not in the top 5 of WW seems a bit off he literally dominated 147 with ease just as much as LW and same for Pac

[BangEM]

This is laughable.

How Haye and Froch made the list in those two weight classes pretty much shows that those weight classes have traditionally been very week. Froch is actually the most laughable.

Not the biggest fan of Ward but Calzaghe wasn’t on his level.

[BangEM]

Probably going to get shot down in flames but floyd not in the top 5 of WW seems a bit off he literally dominated 147 with ease just as much as LW and same for Pac

The list is laughable.

Any list that ranks Calzaghe higher than Roy Jones and Ward is laughable. And Froch also made the list, lol.

But they omitted Mayweather and that shows those who compiled the list have cerebral palsy.

[davef]

The list is laughable.

Any list that ranks Calzaghe higher than Roy Jones and Ward is laughable. And Froch also made the list, lol.

But they omitted Mayweather and that shows those who compiled the list have cerebral palsy.

Yea I noticed Calslappy at number one above Jones and Ward haha

I'm happy at least the bodysnatcher Mike made the list high up you read most of those 'best I faced' articles so many fighters mention McCallum but yea theres way too many strange choices here

[Lupara]

lMAO The Ring. Experts etc

What a joke.

Ward >>> Calzaghe by a mile

[ShaneMosleySr]

Heavyweight rankings are laughable.

Joe Louis is clearly the greatest heavyweight of all time.

Ali was barely the best heavyweight of his era. If he’s number one, Foreman and Frazier have to be 2 and 3.

Lennox Lewis in the top 5 is a joke.

[BangEM]

Yea I noticed Calslappy at number one above Jones and Ward haha

I'm happy at least the bodysnatcher Mike made the list high up you read most of those 'best I faced' articles so many fighters mention McCallum but yea theres way too many strange choices here

Whoever compiled the list just picked his favourite boxers.

Froch Image of Froch getting slapped around the ring for 12rds without winning a single rd against Ward will always be in my head.

Calzaghe has only one decent win against a hypejob and fought 2 guys that were finished by the time he fought them.

[ShoulderRoll]

Naoya Inoue actually got votes at bantamweight? His resume there is far from ATG.