Strongest Divisions By Year

Seamus · Post by **Seamus** » 15 May 2007, 23:25

What were some of the strongest weight divisions in boxing history ? Off hand here's a few particularly outstanding ones.

Middleweight 1959
Champion Sugar Ray Robinson
1.Gene Fullmer
2.Gustav Scholz
3.Spider Webb
4.Joey Giardello
5.Henry Hank
6.Carmen Basilio
7.Dick Tiger
8.Paul Pender
9.Joey Giambra
10.Holly Mims

Middleweight 1945
Champion Tony Zale
1.Holman Williams
2.Charley Burley
3.Jake LaMotta
4.Rocky Graziano
5.Marcel Cerdan
6.Bee Bee Washington
7.Aaron Wade
8.Wildcat Henry
9.Jimmy Edgar
10.Bert Lytell

Bantamweight 1977
Champion Jorge Lujan
1.Carlos Zarate
2.Wilfredo Gomez
3.Alfonso Zamora
4.Sean O'Grady
5.Franco Zurlo
6.Roberto Rubaldino
7.Eusebio Pedroza
8.Alberto Davila
9.Frankie Duarte
10.Lupe Pintor

Ezzard · Post by **Ezzard** » 16 May 2007, 08:57

Featherweight 1981
Salvador Sanchez, Champion

1 Eusebio Pedroza
2 Wilfredo Gomez
3 Juan LaPorte
4 Rocky Lockridge
5 Ruben Castillo
6 Mario Miranda
7 Patrick Ford
8 Pat Cowdell
9 Roberto Rubaldino
10 Paul Ferreri

Featherweight 1982
Eusebio Pedroza, Champion

1 Juan LaPorte
2 Wilfredo Gomez
3 Rocky Lockridge
4 Ruben Castillo
5 Jose Caba
6 Azumah Nelson
7 Mario Miranda
8 Marcos Villasana
9 Jackie Beard
10 Bernard Taylor

Somewhere between these 2 years is a division with immense talent.

Ambling Alp · Post by **Ambling Alp** » 16 May 2007, 12:30

All of those were good choices. 1959 was a great time for middleweight; actually the entire 1950's was a great period for middleweights. There certainly were some good featherweights in the early 1980's.
Here a few more that don't get a lot of attention :

Lightheavyweight 1980
Champion: Matthew Saad Muhammad
1. Eddie Mustpah Muhammad
2. Michael Spinks
3. James Scott
4. Jerry Martin
5. Marvin Johnson
6. Carlos DeLeon
7. Yaqui Lopez
8. Lotte Maule
9. Marvin Camel
10. Mustafa Wassaja

Welterweight 1979
Champion: Ray Leonard
1. Wilfred Benitez
2. Pipino Cuevas
3. Roberto duran
4. Thomas Hearns
5. Joergen Hansen
6. Pete Ranzany
7. Angel Espada
8. Davey Boy Green
9. Joseph Nsubuga
10. Randy Shields

1963 Middleweight
Champion: Joey Giardello
1. Dick Tiger
2. Joey Archer
3. Rubin Carter
4. Lazslo Papp
5. Gene Fullmer
6. Sandro Mazzinghi
7. Nino Benvenuti
8. Luis Folledo
9. Jose Torres
10.Jose Gonzalez

JC · Post by JC » 16 May 2007, 12:39

Lightweights 1933

Champ Barney Ross,
1) Tony Canzoneri
2) Young Peter Jackson
3) Wesley Ramey
4) Sammy Fuller
5) Benny Bass
6) Eddie Cool
7) Frankie Klick
8 )Johnny Jadick
9) Lou Ambers
10) Joe Ghnouly

Seamus · Post by **Seamus** » 16 May 2007, 18:15

How's this for a deep division.

Bantamweight 1917
Champion Pete Herman
Kid Williams
Johnny Ertle
Johnny Coulon
Frankie Burns
Memphis Pal Moore
Joe Lynch
Jack Kid Wolfe
Joe Burman
Frankie Mason
Joey Fox

Diamond WEAPON · Post by **Diamond WEAPON** » 16 May 2007, 20:08

Where are you guys finding these rankings?

Broncano · Post by **Broncano** » 16 May 2007, 21:34

Diamond WEAPON wrote:Where are you guys finding these rankings?

http://www.boxrec.com/media/index.php/T ... al_Ratings

Broncano · Post by **Broncano** » 16 May 2007, 21:36

Light heavyweights, 1964

Willie Pastrano, Champion

1. Gregorio (Goyo) Peralta
2. Harold Johnson
3. Eddie Cotton
4. Mauro Mina
5. Wayne Thornton
6. Jose Torres
7. Gustav Scholz
8. Terry Downes
9. Carl (Bobo) Olson
10. Johnny Persol

pundit · Post by **pundit** » 16 May 2007, 21:46

This is stating the obvious, but 1972 heavyweight reads like this:

Joe Frazier, Champion

1 Muhammad Ali
2 George Foreman
3 Jimmy Ellis
4 Ron Lyle
5 Floyd Patterson
6 Ernie Terrell
7 Jose Roman
8 Joe Bugner
9 Ken Norton
10 Jose Luis Garcia

pundit · Post by **pundit** » 16 May 2007, 21:54

Welterweight 1999 is also a nice list....

Felix Trinidad
Oscar De La Hoya
Ike Quartey
James Page
Pernell Whitaker
Shane Mosley
Vernon Forrest
Oba Carr
Jose Luis Lopez
Shannan Taylor

.... as is middleweight 1992:

Julian Jackson
James Toney
Reggie Johnson
Roy Jones, Jr.
Mike McCallum
Sumbu Kalambay
Gerald McClellan
Lamar Parks
Bernard Hopkins
Thomas Tate

.... and middleweight 1942

Tony Zale*, Champion

Archie Moore
Charley Burley
Holman Williams
Kid Tunero
Jose Basora
Jake LaMotta
Jack Chase
Eddie Booker
Harry (Kid) Matthews
Antonio Fernandez

Seamus · Post by **Seamus** » 17 May 2007, 14:55

Another very deep division.

Lightweight 1917
Champion Benny Leonard
Freddie Welsh
Rocky Kansas
Johnny Kilbane
Frankie Callahan
Lew Tendler
Richie Miller
Patsy Cline
Leo Johnson
Joe Welling
George KO Chaney

dempseyfire · Post by **dempseyfire** » 17 May 2007, 15:15

I know it's the obvious to go to, but I find Ring magazine rankings to be fairly absurd throught the magazine's timespan. For example, what the hell was Jose Roman doing at the #7 HW in the world in 1972??? And the fact they would automatically put in the 'champions' of other nations in the top 10 without them earning that ranking.

For the most part they are ok as a template but the Ring, for every division every year, always put in some names that just made you scratch your head in disbelief.

Ambling Alp · Post by **Ambling Alp** » 18 May 2007, 12:54

There is no question that you will see some strange choices in Ring Magazine's Ratings from time to time. At times, it looks worse in retrospect than it did at the time. A fighter that looks good early in his career might get ranked, or is on a hot streak. Then when he fights good competition it's discovered that he isn't for real.

As for Jose Roman, his #7 ranking isn't quite as bad as it looks at first glance. He had been on a bit of a roll. He had won 22 of his last 23 fights. Most of his wins were against journeyman but he did beat a few fringe contenders such as Urtain,Ramos,Daniels, and O'Halloran. It does seem silly for him to be above Norton but this was when Norton was just reaching his prime and he hadn't beat Ali yet. After Roman's career nose dived he was out of the rankings.
This kind of thing is going to happen from time to time.

Other times there doesn't seem to be any logic at all to Ring's Rankings. Still overall it's much better than the WBC,WBA etc ratings which are usually ridiculaus.

As for this thread, I don't think people agree with the exact order of the top 10 in a particular year and weight class that they picked out. However, it's obvious that there were a lot of very good fighters in the weight divisions for the years mentioned so far.

dempseyfire · Post by **dempseyfire** » 18 May 2007, 14:01

Ambling Alp wrote:There is no question that you will see some strange choices in Ring Magazine's Ratings from time to time. At times, it looks worse in retrospect than it did at the time. A fighter that looks good early in his career might get ranked, or is on a hot streak. Then when he fights good competition it's discovered that he isn't for real.

As for Jose Roman, his #7 ranking isn't quite as bad as it looks at first glance. He had been on a bit of a roll. He had won 22 of his last 23 fights. Most of his wins were against journeyman but he did beat a few fringe contenders such as Urtain,Ramos,Daniels, and O'Halloran. It does seem silly for him to be above Norton but this was when Norton was just reaching his prime and he hadn't beat Ali yet. After Roman's career nose dived he was out of the rankings.
This kind of thing is going to happen from time to time.

Other times there doesn't seem to be any logic at all to Ring's Rankings. Still overall it's much better than the WBC,WBA etc ratings which are usually ridiculaus.

As for this thread, I don't think people agree with the exact order of the top 10 in a particular year and weight class that they picked out. However, it's obvious that there were a lot of very good fighters in the weight divisions for the years mentioned so far.

Was Brian Nielson ever ranked among the top 8 HWs in the world by the Ring? I don't believe so, and he beat better opposition!

It's not just Roman. Pick any division for any year and they'll be AT LEAST 3 fighters on there that should not be there.

I'm just pointing this out b/c Ring rankings get a lot more credit for being "THE source and the only legitimate rankings" than they really deserve.

Jaclem · Post by **Jaclem** » 19 May 2007, 01:12

..check out the light heavies in the forties....some bloopers....billy fox had them conned, for example....but in this decade charles, moore, marshall . bivins in the pantheon of all time greats...and joey maxim and oakland billy smith were high quality...maxim more consistent, smith an erratic bomber...and, what the hell...toss in lesnevich as being okay, though he avoided the very best at the top, and got easily handled by maxim when he met him....and that was only after he lost the title.

m1kee50 · Post by **m1kee50** » 19 May 2007, 02:21

dempseyfire wrote:
Ambling Alp wrote:There is no question that you will see some strange choices in Ring Magazine's Ratings from time to time. At times, it looks worse in retrospect than it did at the time. A fighter that looks good early in his career might get ranked, or is on a hot streak. Then when he fights good competition it's discovered that he isn't for real.

As for Jose Roman, his #7 ranking isn't quite as bad as it looks at first glance. He had been on a bit of a roll. He had won 22 of his last 23 fights. Most of his wins were against journeyman but he did beat a few fringe contenders such as Urtain,Ramos,Daniels, and O'Halloran. It does seem silly for him to be above Norton but this was when Norton was just reaching his prime and he hadn't beat Ali yet. After Roman's career nose dived he was out of the rankings.
This kind of thing is going to happen from time to time.

Other times there doesn't seem to be any logic at all to Ring's Rankings. Still overall it's much better than the WBC,WBA etc ratings which are usually ridiculaus.

As for this thread, I don't think people agree with the exact order of the top 10 in a particular year and weight class that they picked out. However, it's obvious that there were a lot of very good fighters in the weight divisions for the years mentioned so far.
Was Brian Nielson ever ranked among the top 8 HWs in the world by the Ring? I don't believe so, and he beat better opposition!

It's not just Roman. Pick any division for any year and they'll be AT LEAST 3 fighters on there that should not be there.

I'm just pointing this out b/c Ring rankings get a lot more credit for being "THE source and the only legitimate rankings" than they really deserve.

Id rather have a silly name in there for a bad reason than a silly name (Gunn, Bonin, Amir Khan) in there for matchmaking reasons. Give me the RING ratings over the ABC's every time

Seamus · Post by **Seamus** » 22 May 2007, 12:44

Another outstanding division

Middleweight 1936
Champion Marcel Thil
1.Freddie Steele
2.Fred Apostoli
3.Teddy Yarosz
4.Lou Brouillard
5.Young Corbett III
6.Solly Krieger
7.Ken Overlin
8.Babe Risko
9.Kid Tunero
10.Harry Balsamo