Best of the Rest.

First topic message reminder :

Greetings Hoes of the boxing world

Can you please list your top 20 fighters for the following decades. Failing that, we need numbers 11-20 of your top 20. Just going to play around with a few ideas.

The decades in question are, 70's, 80's,90's and 00's.

Cheers

Shah

captain carrantuohil wrote:You're well entitled to that bias. As I say, it's close and I'm not going to argue too fiercely - might try this for the 1940s and see how I go. Off the top of my head, I'd start with Robinson, Charles, Pep, which is a scarily impressive top 3.

Three top ten fighters............Four if you are a Louis advocate.........

Probably the only decade to boast of such riches...

Think that Haz's list for the 90s is excellent, incidentally. Jones or Whitaker the right call at the top, without a doubt. Might want to find a place for Humberto Gonzalez if Carbajal is there, and always feel that Yuri Arbachakov is a seriously underrated name from that decade, but otherwise, a very strong and plausible table.

I've done mine a little differently to the captain - rather than look specifically what a fighter did in a certain decade and possibly list them in two separate lists, I've tried to just decide which particular decade they did their best work in, peaked in or had their most significant performances in, and then measured them using their whole career against other guys who happened to have their best, biggest and most significant moments in that decade, even if their feats overlapped somewhat.

So for instance, Whitaker doesn't come in to consideration in the eighties list for me, as he had a lot more of his title fights and great performances in the nineties. Likewise, Duran was at his most potent and consistent as a Lightweight in the seventies, with the lion's share of his world title fights coming before 1980 dawned - so all his remarkable achievements after that date still fall under the seventies banner.

If I didn't do it like that, then a guy like Azumah Nelson, who split all his definining moments almost perfectly between the eighties and nineties, probably wouldn't crack the top ten in either decade. Using my own method, he gets his place near the top of the eighties tree, which I feel a fighter of his stature deserves. Also, it allows placings for the likes of Saad and Nunn, who would miss out otherwise. Putting Mosley, Barrera and Morales as 00s fighters rather than 90s might surprise some, but in my eyes their careers reached their greatest heights after the turn of the century - but no issue with anyone who sticks them in a previous decade.

70s
1) Duran 2) Arguello 3) Monzon 4) Napoles 5) Foster 6) Foreman 7) Gomez 8) Zarate 9) Frazier 10) Benitez 11) Olivares 12) Canto 13) Cervantes 14) Galindez 15) De Jesus 16) Matthew Saad Muhammad 17) Buchanan 18) Ohba 19) Valdes 20) Palomino

80s
1) Ray Leonard 2) Chavez 3) Michael Spinks 4) Hagler 5) Sanchez 6) Nelson 7) Hearns 8) McCallum 9) Holmes 10) Tyson 11) Gomez 12) Nunn  13) Galaxy 14) Camacho 15) Fenech 16) Qawi 17) Kalambay 18) Curry 19) Pryor 20) Pedroza

90s
1) Whitaker 2) Jones Jr 3) De la Hoya 4) Lopez 5) Lewis 6) Trinidad 7) Holyfield 8) Toney 9) Tszyu 10) Hamed 11) Michalczewski 12) Norris 13) Wilfredo Vazquez 14) Bowe 15) Randall 16) McGirt 17) Humberto Gonzalez 18) Simon Brown 19) Hill 20) Arbachakov

00s - Have gone right up to 2015 for this one, by the way.
1) Mayweather 2) Pacquiao 3) Hopkins 4) Marquez 5) Barrera 6) Morales 7) Wladimir Klitschko 8) Calzaghe 9) Mosley 10) Ward 11) Donaire 12) Calderon 13) Wright 14) Vitali Klitschko 15) Martinez 16) Cotto 17) Froch 18) Roman Gonzalez 19) Bradley 20) Vazquez

Done off the top of my head, so I'm bound to have missed one or two. A rough order which could change on any given day, but I'm relatively happy with it.

I'm guessing, therefore, Chris that Ali would belong to the 60s in any list of yours. Do you not feel that Frazier should arguably be given similar treatment, or is the glory of March 8 1971 alone sufficient for you to place him in the later decade?

It's quite a tough gig, this - well done, Shah.

Ali is an oversight..He's number one on my 70's list..

Yeah, thought it'd make things simpler for me to keep the likes of Ali, Jofre, Griffith etc as sixties fighters, as well as giving a few less obvious names to get their time in the spotlight.

Fair enough about the Frazier question, can't give an infallible answer to that one! What he did against Ali in New York on that March night still stands as the greatest win and performance by any Heavyweight champion in history, for me, so I guess that shaped my reasoning there. Frazier was never better than he was that night - on the other hand, while Ali arguably had his greatest victories in the seventies, as a virtuoso performer he shone brightest in the decade which went before.

Having said that, I've put Mosley in the 00s rather than 90s batch, and the same kind of thing applies to him as well - a better all-round fighting machine in the 90s, but his finest victories and biggest nights of his career in the decade afterwards, albeit mixed with disappointing losses. Guess I've not been consistent! Didn't think this one through properly....

captain carrantuohil wrote:I'm guessing, therefore, Chris that Ali would belong to the 60s in any list of yours. Do you not feel that Frazier should arguably be given similar treatment, or is the glory of March 8 1971 alone sufficient for you to place him in the later decade?

It's quite a tough gig, this - well done, Shah.

Beyond my abilities actually! Hence sharing it with you guys and getting a vague consensus before moving onto the next stage.

Nice to see you back gents. Chris...keep note with the papyrus and quill I have provided.

88Chris05 wrote:

00s - Have gone right up to 2015 for this one, by the way.
1) Mayweather 2) Pacquiao 3) Hopkins 4) Marquez 5) Barrera 6) Morales 7) Wladimir Klitschko 8) Calzaghe 9) Mosley 10) Ward 11) Donaire 12) Calderon 13) Wright 14) Vitali Klitschko 15) Martinez 16) Cotto 17) Froch 18) Roman Gonzalez 19) Bradley 20) Hatton
.

Just a couple of points:

The Super 6 didn't start until October 2009 and Ward had not done much before that. Froch had a title but was he a Top 20 of the decades he sort of straddles the decade.

Bradley again to me has his best wins in the 2010’s. Same as Donaire and Martinez who didn't win a title until 2010.

Not straight forward pick the lower reaches of the Top 20.

Wlad had an up and time in the 2010’s before turning things around so I have lower.

Fair enough.