Favorite fighters by division

[Chava]

This isn't a critique of who's best. Just gimme your favorites by division, the fighters you would want to watch in each division if given the choice.


HW: Joe Louis - Eerily accurate, powerful combos. You just don't see this kind of thing in the big oafs of today.

Cruiser: Holyfield - Just a destroyer at this weight. People talk endlessly about him as if he was always a heavy, but they need to do some homework and look at what he did here. He was indeed "The Real Deal."

LHW: Archie Moore - I could just as easily have picked Michael Spinks for many of the same reasons. Both went a bit against the grain and eschewed convention in the name of complete individuality; both seemed to be cut from a different mold mentally.

SMW: - Meh.

Middleweight: - Marvin Hagler - The toughest human being I have ever seen. You could put him in an Armani suit, drive him up to Wall Street with a briefcase in his hand, and there would still be no doubt as to what he did for a living. A pure fighter, from the word go.

JMW: Mike McCallum - so good, so unappreciated.

Welter: Donald Curry - As a child of the 80's, he was my go-to-guy; he was the one who was just coming into his own as I was cutting my boxing teeth. After he took out McCrory the way he did, I figured he was the next SRR...........oh well.

JWW: Don't really have one.

Lightweight: Harry Arroyo - Go ahead and laugh. I liked the way he approached the game and the way he carried himself, and he was always in good fights.


JLW: Alexis Arguello/Bobby Chacon - Can't pick an overall favorite between the two. They both exeplified courage and determination and were usually in action fights. The similarities were strained from that point on........Alexis was a consummate professional with precise moves and smooth, deadly efficiency whereas Bobby flew by the seat of his pants, more vulnerable and more dramatic.

Feather: Salvador Sanchez - Was everything a fighter should be; sharp, well-conditioned, great boxing skill, cool under fire, behaved reputably.....a true champion.

JFW: Erik Morales: Carried on the tadition of the Mexican warrior proudly and per script.

Bantam: Ruben Olivares - An action fighter with vastly underrated boxing skill who is a constant "must watch" when I get a jones for watching classic bouts. His left hook to the liver has yet to be bettered.


I'll stop at bantam, as my knowledge of the weight classes below this is a bit more limited. Big fan of Ricado Lopez, though.

Yours?

[I Feel Fine]

Heavyweight: Ali
Cruiserweight: Holyfield... there probably wont be much diversity on this one.
Light Heavyweight: Either Saad or Archie Moore
Super Middleweight: James Toney... just because the Barkley fight was so awesome. Also scored an exciting knock out of Littles. He sucked in the Jones fight, but, whatever.
Middleweight: Either Robinson or Hopkins
Jr. Middleweight: Hearns, he scored some nice KO's there.
Welterweight: Basilio.. his fights with DeMarco and Saxton are fun to watch.
Jr. Welterweight: Chavez
Lightweight: Duran
Jr. Lightweight: Mayweather/Morales
Featherweight: Morales
Jr. Featherweight: El Terrible Morales
Bantamweight: R. Marquez, I started to become interested in Bantamweight boxing when I started to see some of his fights, before then I would rarely watch guys south of 122.

[elmersalsa]

HW: Muhammad Ali
CW: Evander Holyfield
LHW: nobody
SMW: nobody
MW: Marvin Hagler
SW: Thomas Hearns
WW: Sugar Ray Leonard
JWW: Aaron Pryor or Julio Cesar Chavez
LW: Roberto Duran and Ken Buchanan second.
JLW: Julio Cesar Chavez or Alexis Arguello
FW: Eusebio Pedroza...I really liked seeing this guy fight. Salvador Sanchez was a close second and Danny Lopez third
SBW: Wilfredo Gomez...A destructive fighting machine.
BW: Jeff Chandler...I used to like his boxing technique. He was fluid and tough.
JBW: Khosai Galaxy..What a bomber.
FW: all the guys that fought there I like
JFW: Michael Carbajal and Hilario Zapata
SWW: I never cared about this weight class.

[raylawpc]

Heavyweight: Joe Frazier
Cruiserweight: Rocky Marciano*
Light-Heavyweight: Matthew Saad Muhammad
Middleweight: Sugar Ray Robinson
Jr. Middleweight: No favorite
Welterweight: Jose Napoles
Jr. Welterweight: Aaron Pryor
Lightweight: Roberto Duran
Jr. Lightweight: Alexis Arguello
Featherweight: Danny Lopez (I would rather watch Olivares, but I listed him at bantam)
Jr. Featherweight: no opinion
Bantamweight: Ruben Olivares
Flyweight: Pascual Perez

All-time favorite to watch: Ruben Olivares!

* Because he would be fighting at cruiserweight today, and because I can’t live with myself if I don’t put him on the list!

“Turn-of-the-century” old-timers I would go back in time to see live:

Heavyweight: Jim Jeffries
Light-heavyweight (if they had had light-heavyweights before 1903): Joe Choynski
Middleweight: Bob Fitzsimmons
Welterweight: Joe Walcott / Mysterious Billy Smith
Lightweight: Joe Gans / George Lavigne
Featherweight: George Dixon / Young Griffo
Bantamweight: Terry McGovern

[Goodnight, Irene]

You can't call Marciano a Cruiser, because he would be, "today." He fought his entire career at Heavyweight, period. If we're going to take that road, we might as well say team X in a given sport are my favourite runners-up, because even though they were champions, they wouldn't beat the current team who are on top.

[raylawpc]

I guess I can call him whatever I want. It's my list. And its the only way I could get my two favorite heavyweights on the same list.

[Goodnight, Irene]

It's your list, but Marciano was never a Cruiserweight.

[raylawpc]

Thanks for your observations. Who were your favorites to watch?

[Collins2000]

MW - Bert Gilroy - possibly Scotland's best 160 pounder.

[Goodnight, Irene]

Heavyweight: George Foreman (Still my favourite fighter of all-time & the reason I started watching boxing)

Cruiserweight: Evander Holyfield

Light-Heavyweight: Billy Conn

Super-Middleweight: Roy Jones Jr.

Middleweight: Mickey Walker

Jr. Middleweight: Wilfred Benitez

Welterweight: Oscar De La Hoya

Jr. Welterweight: Kostya Tszyu (By default, was not really that big a fan)

Lightweight: Pernell Whitaker (Honourable mention: Benny Leonard)

Jr. Lightweight: Alexis Arguello

Featherweight: Salvador Sanchez

Beneath this point, it's a combination of not enough knowledge (at the really low weights) &, ironically, too many favourites to keep picking.

[generic screen name]

Ask me tommorrow it'll probably be different

Heavyweight - between Joe Frazier and Evander Holyfield
Cruiserweight - I really enjoyed James Toney's run at Cruiser. Not the best Cruiser ever though.
Light Heavyweight - Dwight Muhammad Qawi
Super Middleweight - Roy Jones Jr
Middleweight - Marvin Hagler
junior Middleweight - Thomas Hearns
Welterweight - Carmen Basilio, alot of welters from the 80s as well
junior Welterweight - my #1 especially sentimental is Meldrick Taylor, Wilfred Benitez and Aaron Pryor also gets honorable mentions
Lightweight - Pernell Whitaker, Roberto Duran, and Diego Corrales
Junior Lightweight - Floyd Mayweather Jr, had a pretty good run at junior lightweight.
Featherweight - Juan Manuel Marquez
Junior Featherweight - none that stick in my mind, always been a fan of Rafael Marquez, and Israel Vazquez

[elmersalsa]

HW: Muhammad Ali
CW: Evander Holyfield
LHW: nobody
SMW: nobody
MW: Marvin Hagler
SW: Thomas Hearns
WW: Sugar Ray Leonard
JWW: Aaron Pryor or Julio Cesar Chavez
LW: Roberto Duran and Ken Buchanan second.
JLW: Julio Cesar Chavez or Alexis Arguello
FW: Eusebio Pedroza...I really liked seeing this guy fight. Salvador Sanchez was a close second and Danny Lopez third
SBW: Wilfredo Gomez...A destructive fighting machine.
BW: Jeff Chandler...I used to like his boxing technique. He was fluid and tough.
JBW: Khosai Galaxy..What a bomber.
FW: all the guys that fought there I like
JFW: Michael Carbajal and Hilario Zapata
SWW: I never cared about this weight class.

Also at heavywieight, I like to see George Foreman and Mike Tyson's fights.

[VoiceOnTV]

Heavy: Earnie Shavers
Cruiser: Carlos De Leon
Light Heavy: Mathew Saad Muhammad/Michael Spinks (toss up)
Super Middle: Thomas Hearns
Middle: Mike McCallum
Jr MIddle: Terry Norris
Welter: Wilfred Benitez
Jr Welter: Roger Mayweather
Light: Pernell Whitaker
Jr Light: Alexis Arguello
Feather: Salvador Sanchez
Jr Feather: Wilfredo Gomez
Bantam: Greg Richardson/Eddie Cook/Eliecer Julio (sorry 4 the 3-way)
Jr Bantam: Khaosai Galaxy
Fly: Miguel "Maikito" Martinez
Jr Fly: Ivan Calderon
Straw: Finito Lopez

[p4p1]

HW : Mike Tyson/George Foreman - always fun to watch when they were young
CW : Evander
LHW : Roy Jones
SMW : Anthony Mundine
MW : Marvin Hagler
SWW : Tommy Hearns
WW : Shane Mosley - always liked watching him
SLW : Kostya Tszyu
LW : Roberto Duran
SFW : PBF
FW : Naseem Hamed - always entertaining

Flyweight Vic Darchinyan

[Ezzard]

From when I grew up until today...

HW - Holmes
CW - Haye
LHW - Spinks
SMW - Benn
MW - Hearns
JMW - McCallum
WW - Honeyghan
JWW - Lonnie Smith
LW - Chavez
JLW - Lockridge
FW - McGuigan
JFW - Fenech

[Ezzard]

This isn't a critique of who's best. Just gimme your favorites by division, the fighters you would want to watch in each division if given the choice.


HW: Joe Louis - Eerily accurate, powerful combos. You just don't see this kind of thing in the big oafs of today.

Cruiser: Holyfield - Just a destroyer at this weight. People talk endlessly about him as if he was always a heavy, but they need to do some homework and look at what he did here. He was indeed "The Real Deal."

LHW: Archie Moore - I could just as easily have picked Michael Spinks for many of the same reasons. Both went a bit against the grain and eschewed convention in the name of complete individuality; both seemed to be cut from a different mold mentally.

SMW: - Meh.

Middleweight: - Marvin Hagler - The toughest human being I have ever seen. You could put him in an Armani suit, drive him up to Wall Street with a briefcase in his hand, and there would still be no doubt as to what he did for a living. A pure fighter, from the word go.

JMW: Mike McCallum - so good, so unappreciated.

Welter: Donald Curry - As a child of the 80's, he was my go-to-guy; he was the one who was just coming into his own as I was cutting my boxing teeth. After he took out McCrory the way he did, I figured he was the next SRR...........oh well.

JWW: Don't really have one.

Lightweight: Harry Arroyo - Go ahead and laugh. I liked the way he approached the game and the way he carried himself, and he was always in good fights.


JLW: Alexis Arguello/Bobby Chacon - Can't pick an overall favorite between the two. They both exeplified courage and determination and were usually in action fights. The similarities were strained from that point on........Alexis was a consummate professional with precise moves and smooth, deadly efficiency whereas Bobby flew by the seat of his pants, more vulnerable and more dramatic.

Feather: Salvador Sanchez - Was everything a fighter should be; sharp, well-conditioned, great boxing skill, cool under fire, behaved reputably.....a true champion.

JFW: Erik Morales: Carried on the tadition of the Mexican warrior proudly and per script.

Bantam: Ruben Olivares - An action fighter with vastly underrated boxing skill who is a constant "must watch" when I get a jones for watching classic bouts. His left hook to the liver has yet to be bettered.


I'll stop at bantam, as my knowledge of the weight classes below this is a bit more limited. Big fan of Ricado Lopez, though.

Yours?

Nice to see Harry Arroyo's name on the list. Brought back a few memories.

[Floydp55]

HW - Floyd Patterson - just loved him was so small and lacked confidence despite how good he was.

CW - Evander Holyfield - Is their anyone else.

LH - Archie Moore - Just watch him fight Durelle and you'll know.

SM - Joe Calzaghe - Been to see him twice hes a legend

MW - Ray Robinson - The best of all time

WW - Tommy Hearns - will never get bored of the duran or hagler fights

LW - Aaron Pryor - what a beast

Light - Esteban De Jesus - For knocking down duran

Super Feather - Henry Armstrong

Feather - Erik Morales

below does not matter too much. honourable mentions for ricardo lopez and junior jones.