BoxRec

1. Ezzard Charles
2. Gene Tunney
3. Carlos Monzon
4. Larry Holmes
5. Bob Foster

They deserve more credit

Sandy Saddler
Tommy Burns
Freddie Cochrane
Jose Torres
Carlos Ortiz

Joe Jeanette
Antonio Cervantes
Joe Bugner
Sandro Mazninghi
Jimmy Bivins
Tony Canzoneri

I agree with all the other lists as well. With the possible exception of that Ezzard Character.

How to you define underrated ? Almost everyone named so far is in the HOF.

BoxBuzz wrote:Joe Jeanette
Antonio Cervantes
Joe Bugner
Sandro Mazninghi
Jimmy Bivins
Tony Canzoneri

I agree with all the other lists as well. With the possible exception of that Ezzard Character.

Joe Bugner...???????

There are several fighters more undeserving than Barry McGuigan, who are in the HOF. Strange you should mention him. McGuigan was an excellent fighter, who just happened to have a relatively short career.

Of the Heavyweight division I would say:


1. Roland LaStarza
2. Jimmy Bivins
3. Sam Langford
4. Arcjie Moore
5. Billy Conn

(And YES, I am aware that some of these boxers have fought at Light Hevayweight level).

BoxBuzz wrote:Joe Jeanette
Antonio Cervantes
Joe Bugner
Sandro Mazninghi
Jimmy Bivins
Tony Canzoneri

I agree with all the other lists as well. With the possible exception of that Ezzard Character.

All good picks...

I'd add

Marshall
Harada
Saldivar
Tunney
and Jack Johnson who sadly nobody seems to rate too highly these days.

I go for black fighters during the colorline era. Even today they don't get the recognition they deserve. Sam Langford, Harry Wills, Joe Jeanette, Sam McVea, George Godfrey.

Esteban De Jesus is very underrated fighter.

A lot of the past greats like Johnny Dundee, Jimmy Carter, Baby Arizmendi, Freddie Miller and Lew Tendler seem to be underrated. I mean, who the Hell these days knows who Willie Ritchie was? Look him up, he's in the Hall of Fame.

Holman Williams
Eder Jofre
Ken Buchanan
Jose Napoles
Ike Williams

AndreWardFan2006 wrote:1. Ezzard Charles
2. Gene Tunney
3. Carlos Monzon
4. Larry Holmes
5. Bob Foster

They deserve more credit

Hmmmm.... I think many fans rate these 5 as all-time greats, and they are all HOF members.

But I see where you're coming from - these fighters tend to get lots of respect, but rarely admiration. they are "under-admired". I believe though they can be called "underrated" only if you think they should be mentioned in the same breath with Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson or Joe Louis.

1. Mike O'Dowd
2. Santos Laciar
3. Brian Mitchell
4. Newsboy Brown
5. Myung Woo Yuh

Seamus wrote:1. Mike O'Dowd
2. Santos Laciar
3. Brian Mitchell
4. Newsboy Brown
5. Myung Woo Yuh

Good call on Laciar

I was going to say Lloyd Marshall and Holman Williams, but they have already been mentioned! Jeez...they are so many from various eras! I’ll try to stay with the 30s and 40s…Maxie Rosenbloom, Bob Foxworth, Al Gainer, Teddy Yarosz, Ben Jeby, Lou Brouillard, Allen Matthews, Ken Overlin, Gorilla Jones, etc, etc…

Johnny Dundee really never gets mentioned as an all time great, despite holding his own with Benny Leonard in their series and beating guys like Charley White, KO Chaney and Rocky Kansas and fighting near every contender from feather to lightweight in the teens in his 350+ fight career. A few other all time greats that are not given much attention are Panama Al Brown and Kid Chocolate or the Gibbons brothers.

Sticking to fighters not in the HOF:

Newsboy Brown
Horacio Accavallo
Frank Klaus
Ike Weir
Tancy Lee

Charles William (Chuck) Kodres
Anthony Callen
Luca de Niccolo
Jose Maria (Pipo) Garcia
Hosni Faruqi

Johnny Kilbane was one of the most underrated of all time. One of the best featherweights who was one crafty boxer, who by the way held the title for 11 years. He fought the best of his time, check it out. Few people know who he even is.

Manuel ORTIZ

MAURO MINA

Terence wrote:

Seamus wrote:There are several fighters more undeserving than Barry McGuigan, who are in the HOF. Strange you should mention him. McGuigan was an excellent fighter, who just happened to have a relatively short career.

Seamus, he was the most recent one in my mind.

I like Barry, he is a bit of a company man and held back by that but he is a very good analysist. Not HOF though for me.

Barry's career trajectory is the blue print for many recent British greats. he fought brilliantly on his way up and has wins over Laporte, Pedroza and Taylor who were all top fighters. The he struggled with Cabrera, loses to Cruz and his career is as good as over.

The comeback to get within a whisker of winning the Cruz fight was really something. Barry had great stamina to get back into that one. He put so much into those championship rounds.

The rumour was he could have moved up and had a shot at Gomez's title. Gomez was a shadow of his former self and I'd have picked Barry to win that one. There was talk that Barry's brother's interference in his career was unhelpful.

I think it's a shame that he never got to fight with Nelson and that we never got an all British fight with Pat Cowdell.

Still his 3 wins over top fighters does seem a little underwhelming for him to get into the HOF.

AndreWardFan2006 wrote:1. Ezzard Charles
2. Gene Tunney
3. Carlos Monzon
4. Larry Holmes
5. Bob Foster

They deserve more credit

1) Eder Jofre
2) Ricardo Lopez
3) Jose Napoles
4) Ike Williams
5) Antonio Cervantes

Lew Jenkins
Jimmy Ellis
Michael Nunn
Ad Wolgast
Gus Ruhlin (gotta have one local one in here)

>>>What about Booker and Chase? Burley seems to get all the accolades that all of those great black middleweights of the 1940s deserve.<<<

Then there are guys that get even lesser mention than even Booker and Chase.

Aaron "Tiger" Wade...as I already mentioned Allen Matthews, Cocoa Kid, Bert Lytell, Ossie Stewart (who was one of the heaviest-hitting of the era) and possibly the best of the bunch...Lloyd Marshall! I’ve been wanting to get a copy of Otty’s book for a long time, but have never gotten around to it. How is it written…in chapters discussing and describing the era, or is there a chapter for each various boxer, or what?