BoxRec

my top 5 pound for pound fighters of all-time are (in chronological order) Sam Langford, Henry Armstrong, Ray Robinson, Ray Leonard, and Roy Jones. The reason for this is all of these fighters were very successful when they moved up in weight.

name your top 5...

Sugar Ray Robinson
Henry Armstrong
Bob Fitzsimmons
Jimmy Wilde
Sugar Ray Leonard

1. Ray Robinson
2. Henry Armstrong
3. Sam Langford
4. Harry Greb
5. Willie Pep

1. Bert Gilroy
2. Ginger Sadd


Miles of daylight


3. Roberto Duran

Coulda fit the Cinderella Man in there.

1. Sam Langford
2. Sugar Ray Robinson
3. Henry Armstrong
4. Willie Pep
5. Roberto Duran

my top 5 are:

1. Henry Armstrong
2. Sugar Ray Robinson
3. Roberto Duran
4. Muhammad Ali
5. Joe Gans

I have Sam Langford at #6...I have him under consideration in further rankings.

I used to have Joe Louis on the top 5, but those 25 title defenses in 12 years is a bit OVERRATED. 8) 8) 8)

I don't think Louis' title reign is oversold as an accolade (if it were, it wouldn't be an all-time record, surely?), however, I don't see any Heavyweight worthy of consideration for a top five all-time pound-for-pound list, Louis included. I mean, it's top five! C'mon!

Ray Robinson
Sam Langford
Harry Grebb
Henry Armstrong
Ezzard Charles

Sugar Ray Robinson
Roberto Duran
Henry Armstrong
Willie Pep
Sugar Ray Leonard

1) Henry Armstrong

2) Sugar Ray Robinson

3) Willie Pep

4) Roberto Duran

5) Eder Jofre

Goodnight, Irene wrote:I don't think Louis' title reign is oversold as an accolade (if it were, it wouldn't be an all-time record, surely?), however, I don't see any Heavyweight worthy of consideration for a top five all-time pound-for-pound list, Louis included. I mean, it's top five! C'mon!

So heavyweights are automatically disqualified?
Ok, here is my top 5 non-heavyweight list

1. Ray Robinson
2. Henry Armstrong
3. Harry Greb
4. Ezzard Charles
5. Ray Leonard

I don't think I have a personal definitive list, but mine would probably look something like this:

1) Robinson
2) Armstrong
3) Greb
4) Charles
5) Pep

1. Ali
2. Robinson
3. Armstrong
4. Greb
5. Ray Leonard

Could someone please answer.....

How does a HW get considered for a top 5 P4P when this is about fighters who moved up in weight and still had some success? HW don't move up, although they do get fatter. I don't know of any HW off hand who went down in weight to fight.

Robinson
Greb
Fitzsimmons
Armstrong
Langford

Give me guys who were the best in more than one weight class. This to me defines pound for pound.

I don't think Louis' title reign is oversold as an accolade (if it were, it wouldn't be an all-time record, surely?), however, I don't see any Heavyweight worthy of consideration for a top five all-time pound-for-pound list, Louis included. I mean, it's top five! C'mon!

I actually agree with this to an extent. That's why I generally consider the older heavyweights and contenders to be better in a p4p sense than the more modern guys [last 50 years or so], because you had many a division jumper and different champions of diffrent divisions moving up to face one another....so in my logic, since mixing it up with lighter men, heavier men, etc it kept the heavyweight scene more lively and with more "credability" in a sense.

Dont think that made much sense, but I hope some can understand the jist of what I was trying to say.

But I do agree, its like RING's 80 greatest fighters of all time ranks where they had Louis and Ali in the top 5 alone, and on ESPN's Greatest Fighter of All Time they had Ali as number one, when if anything Robinson was, and even Ali said that himself...listing heavyweights anywhere near the top 10 p4p ranks and the like, just makes the whole concept seem less genuine.

That's why I had Langford as #1 because he fought from lightweight to heavyweight, and did very well in all of those weight classes, and for the majority of his career was always considered a contender in all those weight classes...he mixed it up against many, many different stylists and men of different weights and nationalities.

Middleweight and below are going to populate this field for the most part IMHO. I think the most efficient human fighters based on body mechanics and bio physics are going to be in and around the welterweight division.

The human body just operates most efficiently regarding strength/endurance, and speed at that size/weight proportions. There of course will be exceptions. But will those exceptions break into the top 5? Not likely.

And you might argue that with evolution that "prime size" may slowly increase.

"So heavyweights are automatically disqualified?" - Alp

At what point did I say that, Alp? I said, I don't see any Heavyweight deserving of a top five pound-for-pound placing. Or top ten. Or top fifteen, for that matter. We're talking very exclusive company, here. It's nothing to do with their weight, it's to do with their ability, & the abilities of the smaller fighters vying for the positions.

Ringsider

You want a heavyweight who went down in weight. Leon Spinks. He fought Qawi for the Cruiserweight title. Didn't do too well either.

The only heavyweight title holder of the true undisputed championship, that i could ever rank among the greatest fighters p4p of all time would have to be Bob Fitzsimmons...other than that I cant make a very convincing argument for anyone else at heavyweight.

You said that none are worthy of consideration.
That is effect disqualifying them.
Why can't a heavyweight be considered?
Why do we have to assume that a smaller fighter automatically has more ability than a heavyweight?

We can't even consider the abilities of a heavyweight? Why not?

I also think we should be more specific about what we mean by pound for pound.
If we comparing say a featherweight and a middleweight, are we imagining what the featherweight would be if he was a middleweight, and vice versa?

Someone else (ringsider) mentioned that this is about fighters who move up in weight and have success. Does that mean that the small % of fighters that stay at a particular weight (like say Carlos Monzon) shouldn't be considered?

Alp, read it once more. I said they aren't worthy of consideration because none of the individual Heavyweights are good enough (IMO) to be considered amongst the top five fighters of all-time. I never, ever said I precluded the division.

SSR, Harry Greb, Roberto Duran, Benny Leonard, Willie Pep.

But then, Langford and Armstrong are also top 5 :(

Ray Robinson
Sam Langford
Henry Armstrong
Roberto Duran
Marvin Hagler