The best ever? Is this a question asked too often in boxing?

By JonnyHull1990 - 05/20/2014 - Comments

may673By Jonathan Hull: Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0,  26 KO’s) isn’t afraid to boast that he is the best ever and does this by donning The Money Team clothing with the acronym TBE. Despite Floyd’s thoughts some boxing fans feel that Floyd Mayweather Jr isn’t even in the top 10 or 20 greatest of all time in many boxing fans lists.

Ranking the best boxers in history is subjective. No two boxing fans will come up with the same list. But one apparent common trend is for fans to underrate current boxers achievements and exaggerate the achievements of past fighters.

Boxing fans of today are spoilt with top level boxing televised live on almost a weekly basis. This means that fans can accurately determine the capabilities of say Floyd Mayweather Jr’s or Manny Pacquiao’s opponents. This leads to boxing fans particularly in Floyd’s case claiming that he hasn’t fought enough elite level fighters in their prime to earn him the best ever accolade. My issue with this is that the same boxing fans will read articles and watch documentaries about Jack Johnson (94-54-11-8, 34 KO’s) which include little or know video footage of him boxing and automatically put him in their top 10 greatest of all time boxers list.

The only knowledge these fans have of his level of opposition is what the press have written or what articles have been published. Without looking at Boxrec I bet most boxing fans of today’s era couldn’t name more than ten of Jack Johnson’s or Sugar Ray Robinson’s opponents, or even 5 other boxers their opponents fought? Despite this their achievements still get ranked higher than the achievements of the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr and many more fighters of this era.

Boxing fans also like to try and determine who would emerge victorious between fighters of two different eras. In the late 80’s and early 90’s fans would argue who they believed would win between Ali vs Tyson. These days fans claim that if Floyd Mayweather Jr was fighting in the Sugar Ray Leonard, Hagler, Hearns and Duran era he wouldn’t stand a chance. The answer to these questions is we don’t know and will never know. However, as a graduated sport science student I’d like to think that fighters of today’s era would beat past fighters simply on the advancements in the sport science aspect of boxing today. Boxers of today have the advantage of having Nutritionists and strength and conditioning coaches making sure that they not only make weight but are strong at the weight. I’ve never seen anyone debate who the best 100m sprinter is of all time, why? Simply because the records speak for itself. Usain Bolt has run faster than any man over a 100m distance. Therefore, he is the best ever. Although records are not that clear in boxing It’s clear that 100m sprinters have changed physiologically over time and this has also happened in boxers. This is due to the sport science aspect of sport.

In conclusion, I’m clearly an advocate of today’s boxing but that is simply what I know. What I know about boxing before my time is based mainly on a handful of full fights and boxing articles. I feel this is the case for the majority of boxing fans today. Therefore, how can we determine who the best ever is? We can’t so we should just enjoy the greats of our era like Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao and hope that one day they fight so we know who the greatest of our era really is.



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