The Top 100 Greatest Boxers Pound per Pound of All-Time

[elmersalsa]

We're going to examine the career of every great boxer of my list of the top 100 greatest fighters ever. We're going to talk about their fights and record. Who they beat and who they lost or Drew and so on. A complete analysis of the greats of the ring since 1882. It's going to be a countdown from 100 to 1. You may agree with the ranking or not of about what position should this fighter be in. We can look at their most notably fights. And what fight of each fighter's career was their defining moment. To start this thing off and examining the careers of this 100 greats, I am starting with #100. Fighters that Didn't make the cut in my view:

Marcel Cerdan, Sugar Shane Mosley, Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir Klitschko, GGG, Canelo Alvarez, Oscar De La Hoya, Felix "Tito" Trinidad,
Ken Buchanan, Ismael Laguna, Jack Delaney,
Johnny Kilbane, Jack Sharkey, Tommy Gibbons, Mike Gibbons, Max Schmeling, Young Corbett III, Harry Wills, Cocoa Kid, Lloyd Marshall, Harold Johnson, Peerless Jim Driscoll,
Mysterious Billy Smith, James Toney, Floyd Patterson, Jimmy Bivins, Baby Arizmendi etc, etc, etc.

Starting at #100, these to me, are the very best ever. With no further delay, I will start with #100.

100. Jersey Joe Walcott
Record: 51-18-1

KO pct is 63%

Career: 1930-53 (Inactive between 1941 to 1943)

Titles held: World Heavyweight Champion (1951-52)

Highlights: Won 12 in a row from Feb 1945 to Aug 1946. Beat 4 out of 6 Hall of Fame boxers he faced (Record 6-7, 2KOs). Beat 3 out of 5 world champions (Record 5-7, 2KOs).

Historical Impact: Underrated technician with an excellent and perfect left hook. His "Cakewalk Footwork" was one of boxing's all time best. Perseverance and longevity brought him to win finally the World Heavyweight Championship at age 37. Became the oldest boxer to win the Heavyweight Championship for the first time after 4 tries before historic feat.

Defining Fight: WKO7 Ezzard Charles (III)..... July 18, 1951....."With one of boxing's perfect timed left hooks, finally wins the heavyweight crown at age 37 and in his 5th try"
Other Defining Bouts: L15 Joe Louis (I), W10 Jimmy Bivins, W10 Elmer Ray (III), W10 Joey Maxim (II), WKO3 Harold Johnson and LKO13 Rocky Marciano (I).

Let's talk about him. Your thoughts on Jersey Joe Walcott.

[elmersalsa]

Jersey Joe Walcott and Joe Louis were born in the same year, 1914. Ironically, he was about 3 or 4 months older than the Brown Bomber. But, Louis rise to the top was way much faster than Jersey Joe. Interestingly, Jersey Joe started his career at WELTERWEIGHT. And he started pro boxing 4 years before Louis in 1930.

I don't know why it took Walcott so much time to even be in the top ten rankings. You may know the reason.

[elmersalsa]

Jersey Joe clearly beat The Brown Bomber in their first fight, but got screwed by the judges. In the rematch, he made a mistake of clowning a little bit and Louis caught him with a right and that's all she wrote!

[Ambling Alp II]

Many thought he Walcott should have got the decision, but since I have never been able to see film of the entire fight I can't say if he deserved the decision or not.

As for why Walcott why it took so long for Walcott to be a ranked contender:
He struggled for a long time. he didn't have good management. He was not "developed" as a prospect. i.e. He didn't gradually fight better and better opponents with varying styles coming up. He also didn't have a first class trainer in his early years. After Dan Florio became his trainer his career took off. (Florio helped save Floyd Patterson's career and trained many other notable fighters. Probably the most underrated trainer of all time. Should have been in the HOF 20 years ago.)

As for starting his career at welterweight: He weighed 165 pounds in his first fight. He never fought below 158.
The welterweight limit is 147.
Not sure how that would make a welterweight.

[elmersalsa]

Many thought he Walcott should have got the decision, but since I have never been able to see film of the entire fight I can't say if he deserved the decision or not.

As for why Walcott why it took so long for Walcott to be a ranked contender:
He struggled for a long time. he didn't have good management. He was not "developed" as a prospect. i.e. He didn't gradually fight better and better opponents with varying styles coming up. He also didn't have a first class trainer in his early years. After Dan Florio became his trainer his career took off. (Florio helped save Floyd Patterson's career and trained many other notable fighters. Probably the most underrated trainer of all time. Should have been in the HOF 20 years ago.)

As for starting his career at welterweight: He weighed 165 pounds in his first fight. He never fought below 158.
The welterweight limit is 147.
Not sure how that would make a welterweight.

Thanks for the info, Ambling Alp, but somehow in this forum someone yelled out that Jersey Joe started at Welterweight. My mistake was that I didn't check it out.

[elmersalsa]

Ironically, Jersey Joe KO'd Harold Johnson's daddy, Phil, in 1936. And then he did the trick on Harold in 1950. Wow! Jersey Joe was something!

[elmersalsa]

I forgot to write that Walcott scored 32 knockouts in 51 wins. A percentage of 63%. Not bad for a cutie.

[elmersalsa]

What are your thoughts of the 4 fights between Jersey Joe Walcott vs Ezzard Charles?

Walcott vs Rocky Marciano?

Walcott vs Joe Louis?

It seems to me that Walcott fought many top men more than once:
Tiger Jack Fox
Abe Simon
Elmer Ray
Joey Maxim
Joe Louis
Ezzard Charles
Rocky Marciano

[elmersalsa]

I just saw Jersey Joe Walcott fight #3 with Ezzard Charles again. He was like much more determined this time. He was ripping right and left punches on Charles. He was winning the fight in what short of a video I saw. It was a perfect timed left hook, half uppercut. A thing of beauty! You could have counted to 1,000. Charles wasn't getting up. But the right cross that Rocky Marciano gave him in round 13 in the first fight was beautiful to behold, too! He was out! The ref could have counted to 2,000. No way he was getting up.

Walcott's career was very good and interesting. He was crowned by a punch and went out of his throne by a punch. Unbelievable!

[elmersalsa]

Jersey Joe Walcott vs Rocky Marciano fight #1. What a fight. Walcott still at 38 gave a full account of himself.

[oogiebe]

Many thought he Walcott should have got the decision, but since I have never been able to see film of the entire fight I can't say if he deserved the decision or not.

As for why Walcott why it took so long for Walcott to be a ranked contender:
He struggled for a long time. he didn't have good management. He was not "developed" as a prospect. i.e. He didn't gradually fight better and better opponents with varying styles coming up. He also didn't have a first class trainer in his early years. After Dan Florio became his trainer his career took off. (Florio helped save Floyd Patterson's career and trained many other notable fighters. Probably the most underrated trainer of all time. Should have been in the HOF 20 years ago.)

As for starting his career at welterweight: He weighed 165 pounds in his first fight. He never fought below 158.
The welterweight limit is 147.
Not sure how that would make a welterweight.

Who knows how good he could have been given proper development and management. It's amazing what he accomplished in what was really half a career. I heard his first pro fight he made $15.00.

[elmersalsa]

Who knows how good he could have been given proper development and management. It's amazing what he accomplished in what was really half a career. I heard his first pro fight he made $15.00.

Just $15.00? Now I wonder why he quit boxing for 3 years (1941-44)

[oogiebe]

Just $15.00? Now I wonder why he quit boxing for 3 years (1941-44)

LOL! Funny. That was like 1930.

[elmersalsa]

It shows us why those guys were fighting like 3 times a month and had about 20 fights a year. If a guy fights 3 times a year now is a miracle today.

[oogiebe]

It shows us why those guys were fighting like 3 times a month and had about 20 fights a year. If a guy fights 3 times a year now is a miracle today.

They don't know how good they have it. It's amazing.

[elmersalsa]

That was it about the career of the great Jersey Joe Walcott. A truly great Fighter.




Now, let's go to #99. And it is a very interesting one: The great Charles "Sonny" Liston!

99. Sonny Liston
Record: 50-4, 39KO's 78% KO pct.

Career: 1953-70

Titles Held: World Heavyweight Champion (1962-64)

Highlights: Cleaned up the heavyweight division before receiving the title shot. Was avoided by the champion by almost 3 years. Beat 1 of 2 world champions and 1 of 2 hall of fame boxers. Record vs world champions is 2-2, 2KOs. Record versus hall of fame boxers is 2-2, 2KOs. Before losing to Muhammad Ali, his record was 35-1, with 25KOs. Had a 28 fight win streak from March 1955 to July 1963. After losing to Ali twice, won 14 in a row from July 1966 to September 1969. In that stretch, he also stopped 11 straight opponents from July 1966 to December 1968.

Historical Impact: He is most remembered as a bully that lost two controversial fights with the great Muhammad Ali. The second fight was so bizarre that brought more questions than answers, losing to Ali by TKO in first round in strange circumstances. At the height of his prime was one of the most feared heavyweight fighters ever. Some opponents were already defeated before the opening bell. Remarkable skills, his left jab was a heavy-handed weapon that is considered by many one of boxing's pound per pound best.

Defining Fight: WKO1 Floyd Patterson... September 25, 1962..."Finally gets to the top after 4 years waiting for a title shot"

Other Defining Bouts: WTKO3 Cleveland Williams (I), WKO3 Nino Valdes, WKO3 Zora Folley, W12 Eddie Machen, LTKO7 Cassius Clay, and LKO1 Muhammad Ali.

Let's chat about him. How would he do against today's heavyweights?

[elmersalsa]

How about Sonny Liston vs:
Lennox Lewis
Riddick Bowe
George Foreman
Joe Frazier
Wladimir Klitschko
Vitali Klitschko
Anthony Joshua
Larry Holmes
Deontay Wilder

[elmersalsa]

Sonny Liston was a great Inside fighter. He could cover himself well on the inside. The fight with Cleveland Williams, the first one, was a slugfest. A left hook to Big Cat's jaw was all she wrote!

Another classic KO was against Wayne Bethea.

[elmersalsa]

Liston was TOO BIG for Floyd Patterson. He knocked down Patterson about 5 times in 2 fights. Both times in the first round.

And Liston smoked Big Cat Williams again, this time, in round two

[HomicideHenry]

Sometimes I think had Clay never existed, Sonny might have been champion until the late 60s. We'd probably be having arguments about whether he was the greatest of all time. Unfortunately I think Clay mentally destroyed him. So we can only judge him for what really happened instead of what if. He ought to be #100 instead of #99.

[APerno]

Jersey Joe clearly beat The Brown Bomber in their first fight, but got screwed by the judges.

The Louis fight had a strange ramp-up for Walcott (and Louis).

Back in '44 Louis had been fighting a series of EXs and ran afoul of the NYSAC who insisted that every Louis fight (in New York) had to be a title fight, the result was the Johnny Davis mess.

In '47 Louis was in another series of EX fights and Walcott was to be his New York fight (MSG). The Johnny Davis thing was again a problem.

In April Frank Sinatra of all people got into the mix trying to promote a third Walcott-Maxim fight, in Los Angles, CA. In promoting the fight Sinatra pushed the NBA to identify Walcott as a possible contender to the HW title and then offered up the Walcott-Maxim (non-title bout) as an elimination bout. It added more value to the Los Angeles fight. Walcott won a SD over Maxim in ten rounds.*

That night, June 23rd would also then prove to be Louis' last Ex fight for '47.** He had between February and June fought 16 EX fights and then stopped cold, so Sinatra must have had some clout in what was about to happen, but it makes you wonder if his intent wasn't instead a Maxim title shot?

In New York, Walcott's elevation wasn't immediately accepted and a Louis-Walcott ten round non-title fight was scheduled for November 14th with the condition should Walcott KO Louis he could claim the title, but otherwise there would be no decision rendered (ND). The Maxim fight moved Walcott from an exhibition to half a challenger.***

That fight was signed on August 1st and scheduled for November 14th.

Then a month later the NYSAC balked again and in mid September it was finally decided that Walcott was worthy of a title shot and they forced the fight to 15 rounds, with decision, I. e. they made it a title shot.

Louis' people then balked and wanted the fight pushed back to December 5th claiming Louis needed to improve his legs for 15 rounds (and the possibility of a decision.)

Louis continued to spar up until November 18th at his Pompton Lakes training camp and then worked on his legs for three weeks (so say the newspapers). You have to wonder how hard Louis was pushing himself.

Having started out as merely one of the scheduled EX fights for '47 how much did Walcott sneak up on Louis?

It is hard to find any details as to what Walcott was up to.


* You have to wonder, if one judge had gone the other way, we probably never really hear of Jersey Joe Walcott.

** Louis fought in Los Angeles that night as well, (June 23rd, Harry Wills) but I can not put him in the same area with Walcott and Maxim. Does anyone know if Louis was an exhibition on the third Walcott-Maxim card?

*** I wonder if the NYSAC wasn't jealous about the NBA recognizing Walcott and were punishing Walcott for seeking NBA recognition. Walcott was a Jersey boy and must have had a relationship with NYSAC but he did go seeking official recognition from the NBA (smart).

[elmersalsa]

The Louis fight had a strange ramp-up for Walcott (and Louis).

Back in '44 Louis had been fighting a series of EXs and ran afoul of the NYSAC who insisted that every Louis fight (in New York) had to be a title fight, the result was the Johnny Davis mess.

In '47 Louis was in another series of EX fights and Walcott was to be his New York fight (MSG). The Johnny Davis thing was again a problem.

In April Frank Sinatra of all people got into the mix trying to promote a third Walcott-Maxim fight, in Los Angles, CA. In promoting the fight Sinatra pushed the NBA to identify Walcott as a possible contender to the HW title and then offered up the Walcott-Maxim (non-title bout) as an elimination bout. It added more value to the Los Angeles fight. Walcott won a SD over Maxim in ten rounds.*

That night, June 23rd would also then prove to be Louis' last Ex fight for '47.** He had between February and June fought 16 EX fights and then stopped cold, so Sinatra must have had some clout in what was about to happen, but it makes you wonder if his intent wasn't instead a Maxim title shot?

In New York, Walcott's elevation wasn't immediately accepted and a Louis-Walcott ten round non-title fight was scheduled for November 14th with the condition should Walcott KO Louis he could claim the title, but otherwise there would be no decision rendered (ND). The Maxim fight moved Walcott from an exhibition to half a challenger.***

That fight was signed on August 1st and scheduled for November 14th.

Then a month later the NYSAC balked again and in mid September it was finally decided that Walcott was worthy of a title shot and they forced the fight to 15 rounds, with decision, I. e. they made it a title shot.

Louis' people then balked and wanted the fight pushed back to December 5th claiming Louis needed to improve his legs for 15 rounds (and the possibility of a decision.)

Louis continued to spar up until November 18th at his Pompton Lakes training camp and then worked on his legs for three weeks (so say the newspapers). You have to wonder how hard Louis was pushing himself.

Having started out as merely one of the scheduled EX fights for '47 how much did Walcott sneak up on Louis?

It is hard to find any details as to what Walcott was up to.


* You have to wonder, if one judge had gone the other way, we probably never really hear of Jersey Joe Walcott.

** Louis fought in Los Angeles that night as well, (June 23rd, Harry Wills) but I can not put him in the same area with Walcott and Maxim. Does anyone know if Louis was an exhibition on the third Walcott-Maxim card?

*** I wonder if the NYSAC wasn't jealous about the NBA recognizing Walcott and were punishing Walcott for seeking NBA recognition. Walcott was a Jersey boy and must have had a relationship with NYSAC but he did go seeking official recognition from the NBA (smart).

Hey, great information. Thanks.

[elmersalsa]

Sometimes I think had Clay never existed, Sonny might have been champion until the late 60s. We'd probably be having arguments about whether he was the greatest of all time. Unfortunately I think Clay mentally destroyed him. So we can only judge him for what really happened instead of what if. He ought to be #100 instead of #99.

Also, we got to give account that after 1961, Liston wasn't fighting much, either. Before fighting Ali, he only had 2 rounds (merely half of round) in two years. Was Sonny comfortable by not fighting much in two years? He wasn't all that active for a champion. Between 1962 to 1965, Liston only had 4 fights. That's kinda strange for a man that was very active fighting between 1958 to 1961.

[elmersalsa]

At #98, we got a very special fighter. He is one of my favorite Mexican fighters along the great Julio Cesar Chavez. His name? "El Zurdo de Oro", Vicente Saldivar. What a great fighter!

98. Vicente Saldivar.

Record: 37-3, 26KOs. His KO pct is 70%

Career: 1961-73

Titles Held: World Featherweight Champion (1964-67). WBC World Featherweight Champion (1970).

Highlights: Two-time featherweight champion. Made 7 successful title defenses and retired in his first reign. Cleaned up the division by the time of first retirement. Won his first 16 contests. After his first pro defeat, won 20 fights in a row from March 1963 to May 1970 (20-0, 13KOs). Beat 6 out of 8 world champions. Record vs world champions is 8-2, 3KOs. Beat 2 out of 3 hall of fame boxers. Record vs hall of famers is 2-1, 1KO.

Historical Impact: Was the best featherweight boxer of the 1960s decade. A southpaw dynamo that had incredible work rate and stamina, especially after 10 rounds or more. Considered one of the greatest featherweight boxers of all time.

Defining Fight: WTKO12 Sugar Ramos... September 26, 1964... "Administered a tremendous beating to fellow hall of famer to win featherweight crown"
Other Defining Bouts: W10 Ismael Laguna, WTKO15 Raul Rojas, W15 Howard Winstone (I), W10 Jose Legra, W15 Johnny Famechon and LTKO12 Kuniaki Shibata


What are your thoughts about "El Zurdo de Oro"? He is one of my all-time favorites.

[chrisjs1985]

Saldivar was a great fighter. If not for his retirement after the third Winstone fight it's likely Winstone, Legra (first reign) and Famechon don't win the title and perhaps Saldivar fights Harada? Those Winstone fights were excellent, real high class stuff with Saldivar just being too strong and complete for him. I felt Famechon was really close to him in their fight but Saldivar just about deserved it.

I'd personally have Saldivar just inside the top five boxers to ever come out of Mexico. I've seen some think he's as high as number two or three.