BoxRec

Mike Spinks beat Qawi, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad and Marvin Johnson.

Ezzard Charles beat Archie Moore, Jimmy Bivins and Lloyd Marshall

All of them multiple times.

Joey Maxim as well.

It doesn't quite compare but I always thought Gene Tunney was second best to Ezzard Charles and he defeated Georges Carpentier, Harry Greb, and Tommy Loughran. I think it goes without saying had Tunney stayed at light heavyweight he would have beaten Battling Siki, Mike McTigue, Paul Berlenbach and others who did hold the title.

It's Charles for sure. Nobody else really gets close.

Greb has wins over Tunney, Loughran and Gibbons. He might be number 2.

Going by three wins (assuming it has to be three different guys) Spinks has to be pretty close. He just didn't beat them multiple times.
Archie Moore has to be fairly close - Harold Johnson, Bivins, and Marshall.

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑16 Jan 2023, 12:10 Going by three wins (assuming it has to be three different guys) Spinks has to be pretty close. He just didn't beat them multiple times.
Archie Moore has to be fairly close - Harold Johnson, Bivins, and Marshall.

Yes indeed. Archie Moore's best 3 are some of the best, that's why Ezzard having 3 wins over Archie along with the Bivins and Marshall wins to match puts him ahead.

Tunney's 3 best are phenomenal as well.

As far as the 4 guys with the single best wins in the division. It's definitely Ezzard, Tunney, Archie and Spinks. For me Spinks is 4th guy on that list, and I don't even mean to insult his credentials by saying that. His Light Heavyweight record is f*cking excellent, and he ducked nobody.

It's just that Ezzard and Archie's is probably the best era ever for the division, and Tunney's record against Hall of Famers and Greb who is one of the all time greatest surely has to be up near the very top. I'd have him 2nd only to Charles.

Bob Foster deserves a nod.....I looked him up again and that was a heck of a LH career.
Piet Fourie, Dick Tiger and Chris Finnegan is not a bad list.

Greb has Gene Tunney, Tommy Gibbons, Tiger Flowers

Tommy Loughran, Maxie Rosenbloom

He fought most of these guys multiple times. I'm not sure about the win over Flowers, but I know some wins over Tunney and Gibbons were official decisions.

There is some grey areas here.
First, Flowers-Greb was a no-decision.
Both were over the middleweight limit.
However, Flowers was really a middleweight and only about a pound over the limit. Greb was several pounds over. Greb doesn't really need this fight anyway.

Side note- A long time ago, I used to be a stickler for the weight. If two guys were at 160, it wasn't a middleweight fight.

However, if the fight wasn't for the title, it was the norm for two contenders to weigh a little over the weight limit. However, people considered it a middleweight fight.

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑20 Jan 2023, 14:47 There is some grey areas here.
First, Flowers-Greb was a no-decision.
Both were over the middleweight limit.
However, Flowers was really a middleweight and only about a pound over the limit. Greb was several pounds over. Greb doesn't really need this fight anyway.

Side note- A long time ago, I used to be a stickler for the weight. If two guys were at 160, it wasn't a middleweight fight.

However, if the fight wasn't for the title, it was the norm for two contenders to weigh a little over the weight limit. However, people considered it a middleweight fight.

Still happens today. I remember some of Jermain Taylor's fights prior to fighting Hopkins he may have weighed 161 or 162 or so.