the Top 20 Pound-for-Pound Boxers of the Past 20 Years

Seriously.. to have Floyd Mayweather at number 7 invalidates this entire list!! I'm not a fan boy but to disrespect his talent and accomplishments means that this list has much in the way of personal BS. No way he's not in the top 3, arguably #1... :smh:
 
TJervey said:
Seriously.. to have Floyd Mayweather at number 7 invalidates this entire list!! I'm not a fan boy but to disrespect his talent and accomplishments means that this list has much in the way of personal BS. No way he's not in the top 3, arguably #1... :smh:
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:lol::lol::lol::lol:

I didn't even go that far. First they had De La last and Cotto a spot ahead of him and I :smh:, but I closed the shit after seeing Joe Calzage at spot 8 ahead of Morales, Barrera, JMM and etc. :hmm:
 
Damn. I didn´t think the list was that bad except for Hopkins being #1 but I didn´t find it extremely off. However, I didn´t notice what someone here said about Cotto being over FLoyd Mayweather but if that´s true then yeah the list is a little crazy.
 
TJervey said:
Seriously.. to have Floyd Mayweather at number 7 invalidates this entire list!! I'm not a fan boy but to disrespect his talent and accomplishments means that this list has much in the way of personal BS. No way he's not in the top 3, arguably #1... :smh:
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Why would it invalidate the list? It's not like they put Devon Alexander over him. The six guys over him are very stiff historical competition: Roy Jones, Hopkins, Toney, freakin Pernell Whitaker, Lennox Lewis, Pacquiao. Damn, extremely tough historical competition indeed. I don't find it outrageous for Mayweather to be ranked under any of those guys.
 
Zeferino said:
Why would it invalidate the list? It's not like they put Devon Alexander over him. The six guys over him are very stiff historical competition: Roy Jones, Hopkins, Toney, freakin Pernell Whitaker, Lennox Lewis, Pacquiao. Damn, extremely tough historical competition indeed. I don't find it outrageous for Mayweather to be ranked under any of those guys.
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I feel you, but the Top 20 needs to be based on the entire timeline defined not just the prime years. Sure, RJJ, Tony, Whitaker, had fine years, but in the place of RJJ and Toney especially, if you look at the last 10 years or so... their ring performances and results have tarnished the hell out of their standing over the past 20 years! If this was the top 20 fighters in their prime over the past 20, then yes, I would concur with your point. However, when you look at the complete body of work for all of the people ahead of him, none of them warrant consideration over Floyd clearly. You could say Manny, but with all the catch weight nonsense, as well as fighting retreads, etc this sort of diminishes his standing over Floyd IMO. He doesn't have a prime Corrales, Castillo, Genaro Hernandez, etc. on his ledger.... And beating Cotto, Margarito, Clottey and a faded Oscar doesn't warrant him being ahead of Floyd... Floyd, as much of a pain in the ass as he is, is undoubtedly one of the most complete fighters in the History of Boxing, much less in the last 20 years...
 
TJervey said:
I feel you, but the Top 20 needs to be based on the entire timeline defined not just the prime years. Sure, RJJ, Tony, Whitaker, had fine years, but in the place of RJJ and Toney especially, if you look at the last 10 years or so... their ring performances and results have tarnished the hell out of their standing over the past 20 years! If this was the top 20 fighters in their prime over the past 20, then yes, I would concur with your point. However, when you look at the complete body of work for all of the people ahead of him, none of them warrant consideration over Floyd clearly. You could say Manny, but with all the catch weight nonsense, as well as fighting retreads, etc this sort of diminishes his standing over Floyd IMO. He doesn't have a prime Corrales, Castillo, Genaro Hernandez, etc. on his ledger.... And beating Cotto, Margarito, Clottey and a faded Oscar doesn't warrant him being ahead of Floyd... Floyd, as much of a pain in the ass as he is, is undoubtedly one of the most complete fighters in the History of Boxing, much less in the last 20 years...
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The list covers a span of 20 years. If we're not going to consider the prime years then it would be an unfair list because fighters like Floyd and Pacquiao are in their prime now and not 20 years ago and vice versa for Holyfield, Jones, Toney, Lennox Lewis, etc. The fairest comparison is to compare everyone in their prime because by the same token we can say Floyd or Pac are rated too high because they haven't had time to fall off like the aforementioned older fighters. In other words, the list contains fighters with complete careers and fighters whose careers are not complete yet.

Regarding Pac and the so called catchweight nonsense, the great Henry Armstrong also engaged in catchweight fights and that does not subtract from his accomplishments at all. The whole sudden outrage against catchweight fights surged from people that hate Pacquiao and want to detract from his accomplishments. This is ridiculous because some of the greatest fighters of all time over the past probably 90 years engaged in catchweight bouts. The only catchweight bouts Pac had were against Cotto and Margarito and nothing about the circumstances would indicate that he somehow benefitted unfairly because of the weights. Especially in the case of Margarito, I would say Margarito actually benefited from the catchweight.
 
Zeferino said:
The list covers a span of 20 years. If we're not going to consider the prime years then it would be an unfair list because fighters like Floyd and Pacquiao are in their prime now and not 20 years ago and vice versa for Holyfield, Jones, Toney, Lennox Lewis, etc. The fairest comparison is to compare everyone in their prime because by the same token we can say Floyd or Pac are rated too high because they haven't had time to fall off like the aforementioned older fighters. In other words, the list contains fighters with complete careers and fighters whose careers are not complete yet.

Regarding Pac and the so called catchweight nonsense, the great Henry Armstrong also engaged in catchweight fights and that does not subtract from his accomplishments at all. The whole sudden outrage against catchweight fights surged from people that hate Pacquiao and want to detract from his accomplishments. This is ridiculous because some of the greatest fighters of all time over the past probably 90 years engaged in catchweight bouts. The only catchweight bouts Pac had were against Cotto and Margarito and nothing about the circumstances would indicate that he somehow benefitted unfairly because of the weights. Especially in the case of Margarito, I would say Margarito actually benefited from the catchweight.
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I'm not saying not to include their prime years, what I am saying is, you cannot base your list on JUST their prime years. When you look at the ENTIRE body of work for Floyd, against, say RJJ and Toney, he has been more consistently dominant, he had not been knocked out 3-4 times, and he doesn't have any BAD loses, as a matter of fact, he has NONE! So, in examining the last 20 years, how can RJJ, and Toney, BOTH be rated above a fighter who has consistently dominated and has no loses?!?!?! Doesn't make sense!!!
 
TJervey said:
I'm not saying not to include their prime years, what I am saying is, you cannot base your list on JUST their prime years. When you look at the ENTIRE body of work for Floyd, against, say RJJ and Toney, he has been more consistently dominant, he had not been knocked out 3-4 times, and he doesn't have any BAD loses, as a matter of fact, he has NONE! So, in examining the last 20 years, how can RJJ, and Toney, BOTH be rated above a fighter who has consistently dominated and has no loses?!?!?! Doesn't make sense!!!
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Yeah, but Floyd's career is not over yet and neither is Pacquiao's. That would be like doing a best heavyweights pound for pound over the past 20 years in 1989 and putting Mike Tyson over Ali because toward the end of Ali´s career Ali was getting the hell beaten out of him by Trevor Berbick and Larry Holmes while Tyson was on fire icing everybody.

What doesn't make sense is trying to compare active fighters in their prime to fighters that are past their prime and using that information to determine which is better pound for pound. This is why a lot of people had to eat crow with Roy Jones because before his career was even over, some people were putting him higher than Sugar Ray Robinson or just below him.

A list like this will never be perfect but for it to make some kind of sense you have to at least assume everyone is figuratively in their prime for the purpose of the comparisons.
 
Zeferino said:
Yeah, but Floyd's career is not over yet and neither is Pacquiao's. That would be like doing a best heavyweights pound for pound over the past 20 years in 1989 and putting Mike Tyson over Ali because toward the end of Ali´s career Ali was getting the hell beaten out of him by Trevor Berbick and Larry Holmes while Tyson was on fire icing everybody.

What doesn't make sense is trying to compare active fighters in their prime to fighters that are past their prime and using that information to determine which is better pound for pound. This is why a lot of people had to eat crow with Roy Jones because before his career was even over, some people were putting him higher than Sugar Ray Robinson or just below him.

A list like this will never be perfect but for it to make some kind of sense you have to at least assume everyone is figuratively in their prime for the purpose of the comparisons.
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Oranges and Apples Dude. Then, created a list when their careers are over and revisit, but at the time of THIS writing, Floyd is undefeated, Manny is dominating, and RJJ has been knocked out 3 times and James Toney has not looked good in years... All within the LAST 20 years!!! Again, you can glorify the wins but you cannot disregard the loses, especially when the loses aren't even to elite fighters!!! Roy has been knocked out by Danny Green and Lebedev for Christ's sake!?!?!? Come on man... Really... :smh:
 
TJervey said:
Oranges and Apples Dude. Then, created a list when their careers are over and revisit, but at the time of THIS writing, Floyd is undefeated, Manny is dominating, and RJJ has been knocked out 3 times and James Toney has not looked good in years... All within the LAST 20 years!!! Again, you can glorify the wins but you cannot disregard the loses, especially when the loses aren't even to elite fighters!!! Roy has been knocked out by Danny Green and Lebedev for Christ's sake!?!?!? Come on man... Really... :smh:
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So why are Roy Jones and James Toney even on the list? Pernell Whitaker shouldn't be on the list either. If this is a "what have you done for me lately" kind of list, then I agree with you. If this is a best of the pound for pound fighters over the past 20 years, I would assume that the comparison is of each fighter during their time on the pound for pound best list and not the time when they were rolling around on the floor getting knocked out by Lebedev and Danny Green, lol. I think you're misinterpreting the purpose of the list. If this list was meant to include the best pound for pound fighters when they were not even on the pound for pound list anymore, it wouldn't make any sense.
 
TJervey said:
Oranges and Apples Dude. Then, created a list when their careers are over and revisit, but at the time of THIS writing, Floyd is undefeated, Manny is dominating, and RJJ has been knocked out 3 times and James Toney has not looked good in years... All within the LAST 20 years!!! Again, you can glorify the wins but you cannot disregard the loses, especially when the loses aren't even to elite fighters!!! Roy has been knocked out by Danny Green and Lebedev for Christ's sake!?!?!? Come on man... Really... :smh:
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I understand your point, but I disagree a bit cause Calzaghe would have to be 2nd and he shouldn't be on anyone's list. I think the failures have to be weighed against the successes and in the case of guys like B-hop or JMM... they gets a pass for still scrapping against decent comp and winning... shit I'll give guys like Toney a pass as long as he stops soon cause he has stayed a little too long. He just hasn't embarrassed him too much yet, but guys like RJJ brought it on themselves and their continued failures are so big that it's getting to the point of overshadowing their success...
 
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