15.05.07 – By James Slater: I was recently reading ESPN’s listing of their choice for the fifty greatest boxers in history. The list angered many, as proven by the large number of disagreeing comments left on various boxing web sites. Still, overall I found the list to be okay. Such a chart is nothing more than conjecture anyway, as the great Teddy Atlas said while defending the choices ESPN had made in their top fifty. Their list may have been an okay one, but that doesn’t mean I agreed with it entirely. In fact there were a couple of outright omissions that caught my eye – the superb, and never beaten, Ricardo Lopez for one.
With all the above said, I give here my list of the fifty finest pugilists of all-time. Compiling the list you are about to read was no easy job. Nor did I attempt the task with anything other than a serious attitude. Disagreement, even angst, will no doubt be felt by a few readers – perhaps even more than a few. But understand that this list was written with absolutely no axe to grind, and that if serious disagreement is felt then perhaps the writing of another list should be undertaken by the person (or persons) who so feel so strongly against mine.
My fifty choices now follow. And remember, it’s only an opinion.
1. Sugar Ray Robinson
2. Henry Armstrong
3. Muhammad Ali
4. Roberto Duran
5. Ezzard Charles
6. Benny Leonard
7. Archie Moore
8. Willie Pep
9. Harry Greb
10. Joe Louis
11. Joe Gans
12. Sam Langford
13. Jimmy Wilde
14. Gene Tunney
15. Charley Burley
16. Billy Conn
17. Jack Johnson
18. Edre Jofre
19. Sugar Ray Leonard
20. Barney Ross/Kid Gavilan (Tie)
21. Marvellous Marvin Hagler
22. Jack Dempsey
23. Pernell Whitaker
24. Stanley Ketchell
25. Julio Cesar Chavez
26. Tony Canzoneri
27. Rocky Marciano
28. Carlos Monzon
29. Sandy Saddler
30. Michael Spinks
31. Jimmy McLarnin
32. Thomas Hearns
33. Bob Foster
34. George Foreman
35. Mickey Walker
36. Terry McGovern
37. Larry Holmes
38. Roy Jones Jr.
39. Alexis Arguello
40. Joe Frazier
41. Ricardo Lopez
42. Jake LaMotta
43. Salvador Sanchez
44. Floyd Mayweather Junior
45. Marcel Cerdan
46. Emile Griffith
47. Ted Kid Lewis
48. Oscar De La Hoya
49. Khaosai Galaxy
50. Jose Napoles/Aaron Pryor (Tie)