Who are your greatest boxers by division?

What I Always Consider In Determining Greatness Below:

Number of wins vs HOFs

Manner of wins over HOFs

Risks take

Difficulty of Feat or record set

Longevity

Domination

MINE:

Heavyweight: MUHAMMED ALI

Various boxing authorities have ranked Ali as the best heavyweight boxer in history. He and the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson have been bracketed as the top two across all weight divisions.

Ali won a gold medal (as a light heavyweight) at the 1960 Rome Olympics as the culmination of an amateur boxing career in which he won 100 of 105 bouts.

As a professional, Ali won the world heavyweight championship on three separate occasions over 14 years. He was victorious in 56 of 61 professional bouts, with three of the losses coming late in his career when his athleticism had faded. Sports Illustrated named him as its Sportsman of the 20th Century.

Light Heavyweight: EZZARD CHARLES

Charles defeated numerous Hall of Fame fighters in three different weight classes. He retired with a record of 95 wins, 25 losses and 1 draw.

Born into poverty in Georgia on July 7, 1921, Charles’ family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio when he was a youngster. Ezzard Charles was almost a natural born fighter. As a teenager, Charles took up boxing and was undefeated as an amateur with a record of 42-0.

Charles turned pro on March 15, 1940 as a middleweight with a third round knockout of Medley Johnson in Middletown, Pennsylvania. Fourteen months later, Charles had already compiled a record of 21-0 with 15 KOs.

Middleweight:HARRY GREB

Historian Eric Jorgensen stated, “Greb may have been the greatest fighter, pound-for-pound, who ever lived. Certainly, he was among the top 2 or 3. He combined the speed of Ray Robinson, the durability of Jim Jeffries, the stamina of Henry Armstrong, and the unbridled ferocity of Stanley Ketchel with a will to win unsurpassed in the annals of sport. At his peak, he was unbeatable, defeating virtually every middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight of his generation. A great, great fighter.”

Harry Greb was one of the most electrifying fighters in the history of boxing. He had an aggressive, non-stop punching style. That style earned him the moniker “The Pittsburgh Windmill.” Greb averaged over 20 fights a year during his entire career. In 1922, he moved up to Light Heavyweight and handed future Heavyweight champion of the world Gene Tunney the only defeat of his career. Then, a year later, he won the Middleweight championship of the world, outpointing then champion Johnny Wilson over 15 rounds. That began a reign that would last three years and help make him the fourth greatest Middleweight in boxing history.

Welterweight:SUGAR RAY ROBINSON

As world welterweight champion in the 1940s, Robinson defended the title five times. He won and lost the world middleweight championship five times in the 1950s. His professional career, which lasted 25 years, ended in 1965, when he was 44. He fought 201 times as a professional and knocked out 109 opponents. Of his 19 career losses, 10 came after he had turned 40.

Robinson began boxing as an underage amateur--he was only 15 when he had his first regulation bout--and he was unbeaten in 85 bouts before turning pro in 1940.

Famed boxing writer W.C. Heinz once observed that Robinson's career overlapped "two distinct eras" in the rise of blacks in sports: "He began before Jackie Robinson played his first game with the Dodgers and continued into the prime of Muhammad Ali."

Lightweight: ROBERTO DURAN

The lightweight division generally conjures images of one man; a fighter so brutal he chose not only to defeat his opponents but loved to humiliate them. He was a force of nature, daring any man to push him to the extremes of his ability. He was the personification of the fury of the barrios; he was, of course, Roberto Duran.

The Panamanian was unlike any lightweight the world had ever seen; bristling with machismo and a raw, undiluted hunger derived from a troubled upbringing in the slums of Chorillo, near the Panama Canal. They called him Manos De Piedra (Hands of Stone) for good reason.

Of course, Duran is not the only great lightweight in the division’s 106 year history. From the pioneering Joe Gans and the stylish Benny Leonard to the late-blooming Joe Brown and latterly the waspish talents of Pernell Whitaker, the division has always hosted a unique brand of fighter.

Featherweight: WILLIE PEP

When Pep was only 19 years old, he turned professional. He won his first bout on July 3, 1940, fighting Jim McGovern in Hartford, Connecticut. Pep went on to go undefeated in his first three years as a professional boxer. Pep became the youngest boxer in 40 years to win a world title. He won his first world title as a featherweight when he defeated Albert "Chalky" Wright in a 15-round bout in New York City on November 20, 1942.

Because this world title was awarded by the New York State Athletic Commission, the National Boxing Association would not recognize Pep as featherweight champion until he defeated their reigning champ, Sal Bartolo. Pep became the consolidated world featherweight champion when he defeated Bartolo by decision in a ten-round bout in Boston, on April 9, 1943. Pep would retain his world champion crown until 1948.

Bantamweight: EDER JOFRE

Aka Mr Handsome, The acknowledgement of Eder as the best pound-for-pound boxer of that time was ever growing. And it was nothing to be surprised about. Just so we can have an idea of the size of our Jofrinho's achievements: there were 9 world title fights, when he won the belt plus eight title defenses. Eder won all of them by stoppage, clearly and indisputably dominating the bantamweight division for four years. He had 50 fights, with 3 draws and 47 wins, 37 of which were knockouts. In his last 17 fights, Jofre did not know what it was like to let the judges decide who was the best boxer.

Flyweight: JIMMY WILDE

It is estimated that he fought anywhere in the region of between 500 - 1000 fights when including the bouts he engaged in during these boxing booth days. The booth fights would hone Jimmy's skills and begin his legendary status. For he fought hundreds of opponents, mostly all of which were several stones (1 stone = 14lbs) heavier than himself, and indeed fought as many as 25 opponents in one day!! For a day in the boxing booths Jimmy could earn the equivalent to a weeks wages in the coal mines.

UNBEATEN IN 101 CONTESTS

After building a fantastic reputation for himself in the boxing booths of Wales, Jimmy had his first professional contest against Les Williams in a three round no decision. He then embarked on a series of wins that would later establish him as a legend of the fight game. Notable victories - and there were many - included an eighteenth round knockout of Billy Padden to take the British 98lb championship, a 6 round K.O. of Frenchman Eugene Husson and wins over world title claimants Sid Smith and Joe Symonds (Symonds had previously beaten Percy Jones - the first Welshman to claim a world title). Wilde remained unbeaten for four years and a total of 101 fights ! (including no decisions). They came, they saw and in the vast majority of cases they were knocked out !