BoxRec

I've repeatedly searched for a topic with this title, and I've only found this (your top-5):
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=223894&hilit=P4p+ever

I want more: at least your top-10.

If this is a re-post, please just re-direct me with a link. Thanks.

Here's my top-10 list, to start. Considering both their natural makings, and their achievements or work-ethics.

In no particular order:

Ray Robinson
Floyd Jr.
Duran
Armstrong
Joe Louis
Marciano
Monzon
Pacquiao (for his weight-gap, mainly).
Hearns
Calzaghe (for having coped so well with brittle bones, and for beating greats at their own game, against all odds; and that's unique).

Honourable mentions (in no particular order): Willie Pep, Lennox Lewis, Bernard Hopkins, De La Hoya, Chavez Sr., Marquez, Hagler, Tunney, Fitzsimmons.
The only honourable mention among currently active boxers is Canelo, but he could even make it in any top-10 p4p ever list, by the end of his career, I believe.

I've surely forgot some.

I've never seen fighting footage of Greb.

Jack Johnson and Langford were grabbing, clinching and holding too much for my taste.

You must be forgetting Roy Jones and Ali? Neither style is my cup of tea but both are incredible and their footage holds up against most in history.

In no particular order off the top of my head I'd say the top 12-15 I've seen are as follows : -

Sugar Ray Robinson
Sugar Ray Leonard
Roy Jones
Eder Jofre
Roberto Duran
Jose Napoles
Pernell Whitaker
Muhammad Ali
Ezzard Charles
Henry Armstrong
Barney Ross
Willie Pep
Joe Louis
Luis Rodriguez
Carlos Ortiz

That doesn't mean they are the 12-15 greatest I've seen on film just the 12-15 that I considered the best based on their overall ability and style. I think Carlos Monzon would be considered "greater" than some of these guys but there's no way he looks better to my eyes.

Best I've seen live in person would be: Vasiliy Lomachenko, Floyd Mayweather, Juan Manuel Marquez, Manny Pacquaio, Terence Crawford, Joe Calzaghe roughly in that order.

I take it you mean video of them fighting, something like

Bob Fitzsimmons
Ezzard Charles
Henry Armstrong
Sugar Ray Robinson
Sam Langford
Jimmy Wilde
Joe Gans
Charley Burley
Packey McFarland
Floyd Mayweather

Honestly, after Langford, and especially after Gans, there's loads I see as fairly equal.

chrisjs1985 wrote: ↑13 Feb 2019, 19:33 You must be forgetting Roy Jones and Ali? Neither style is my cup of tea but both are incredible and their footage holds up against most in history.

In no particular order off the top of my head I'd say the top 12-15 I've seen are as follows : -

Sugar Ray Robinson
Sugar Ray Leonard
Roy Jones
Eder Jofre
Roberto Duran
Jose Napoles
Pernell Whitaker
Muhammad Ali
Ezzard Charles
Henry Armstrong
Barney Ross
Willie Pep
Joe Louis
Luis Rodriguez
Carlos Ortiz

That doesn't mean they are the 12-15 greatest I've seen on film just the 12-15 that I considered the best based on their overall ability and style. I think Carlos Monzon would be considered "greater" than some of these guys but there's no way he looks better to my eyes.

Best I've seen live in person would be: Vasiliy Lomachenko, Floyd Mayweather, Juan Manuel Marquez, Manny Pacquaio, Terence Crawford, Joe Calzaghe roughly in that order.

Good point on Napoles: I was sure I had forgotten somebody, and he's a striking example: I still remember his great hooks...

Alí and Jones Jr. were great, but had a too-much-dangerous style, more dangerous for themselves than for their opponents, late in their career: you have to dig deeper than this, technically, if you wanna be an all-timer in my eyes.

If I considered only natural makings, Alí and Jones Jr. would be top-5 in my all-time p4p list, but if I take into account their work-ethics as well, they would make it easy in my top 20, but not higher, because there are guys who had maybe just little less talent, but fought much more responsibly than them.
I would rate Foreman ahead of both, for his longevity and seriousness.

The issue with old boxers' video footage, is that most of them are just corny tributes with the first 30 seconds consisting in vintage pictures showing dudes with a lot of shoe-polish on their hair, posing in unlikely guard-stances, made by desperate nerds, missing an era they never lived in, who never took a punch in their entire life, pretending to teach you how to box by pointing out that some old fighter, as brave, strong and talented as you want, but technically light-years behind a Joe Louis, can throw an uppercut and clinch, to avoid a counterpunch... wow, good job, baby, now go get your motherfùckin shinebox.

So, Joe Gans and Benny Leonard's videos are usually fùcked up.

Tony Canzoneri was great: not everything can suck, in life.

Jacopodb wrote: ↑14 Feb 2019, 09:55 The issue with old boxers' video footage, is that most of them are just corny tributes with the first 30 seconds consisting in vintage pictures showing dudes with a lot of shoe-polish on their hair, posing in unlikely guard-stances, made by desperate nerds, missing an era they never lived in, who never took a punch in their entire life, pretending to teach you how to box by pointing out that some old fighter, as brave, strong and talented as you want, but technically light-years behind a Joe Louis, can throw an uppercut and clinch, to avoid a counterpunch... wow, good job, baby, now go get your motherfùckin shinebox.

So, Joe Gans and Benny Leonard's videos are usually fùcked up.

Tony Canzoneri was great: not everything can suck, in life.

That's why when I talk greatness I measure relative to one's era. I think the evolution of style in general improved around the mid/late 30's and since then I don't know that there has been an era that's improved based on technique and skill. Having said that, I think relative to their era's Benny Leonard and Joe Gans look so much more skilled and technical than others. I'd personally put both in the top 10 greatest of all-time.

chrisjs1985 wrote: ↑14 Feb 2019, 12:37

Jacopodb wrote: ↑14 Feb 2019, 09:55 The issue with old boxers' video footage, is that most of them are just corny tributes with the first 30 seconds consisting in vintage pictures showing dudes with a lot of shoe-polish on their hair, posing in unlikely guard-stances, made by desperate nerds, missing an era they never lived in, who never took a punch in their entire life, pretending to teach you how to box by pointing out that some old fighter, as brave, strong and talented as you want, but technically light-years behind a Joe Louis, can throw an uppercut and clinch, to avoid a counterpunch... wow, good job, baby, now go get your motherfùckin shinebox.

So, Joe Gans and Benny Leonard's videos are usually fùcked up.

Tony Canzoneri was great: not everything can suck, in life.

That's why when I talk greatness I measure relative to one's era. I think the evolution of style in general improved around the mid/late 30's and since then I don't know that there has been an era that's improved based on technique and skill. Having said that, I think relative to their era's Benny Leonard and Joe Gans look so much more skilled and technical than others. I'd personally put both in the top 10 greatest of all-time.

You watch one minute in any round of any of their fights, and can tell they were great: I mean, just their very stance can tell a lot.

Having said that, obviously, if you throw a Jack Johnson in the bunch with nowadays' heavyweights, and give him like 6 months to fit in, he goes on to win titles, baby.