Your top boxer and why ?

Von Smallhausen

Von Smallhausen

Von Smallhausen

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As above, who is your top boxer of all time ?

Mine will always be Muhammad Ali. He had everything - blurred speed, mongoose reactions to dodge punches, supreme stamina, a laser jab and a granite chin. While he was never a Tyson or Foreman KO specialist, he still packed a punch and 37 of his 56 wins were by KO.

Close second for me is Marvin Hagler - the ultimate wrecking machine.

I'm lucky enough to have signed pics of both.
 
Mike Tyson for me. In his prime I always felt genuinely frightened the other guy was about to be killed. Golden age of boxing on free to air TV. I am the same age as Tyson so am influenced by what was around at the time of course. I remember Ali in the 70's but was too young to really take it in, but I always fantasized while Ali was still alive, that if I was ever given 3 wishes, the first one would be to give Muhammad Ali all his faculties back.
 
Bubo said:
Mike Tyson for me. In his prime I always felt genuinely frightened the other guy was about to be killed. Golden age of boxing on free to air TV. I am the same age as Tyson so am influenced by what was around at the time of course. I remember Ali in the 70's but was too young to really take it in, but I always fantasized while Ali was still alive, that if I was ever given 3 wishes, the first one would be to give Muhammad Ali all his faculties back.
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Mike Tyson for me too. A guy that was much shorter than most of the heavyweights, with the speed and immense power he had is just terrifying.

I can't imagine what it must have even like to think "I'm going to be the guy that takes Tyson out", then he hits you in the face, and your game plan falls out your arse.
 
It depends on the day you ask me. Pretty Boy Floyd - Money May - Pernell Whittaker - Ray Lenoard - Roy Jones Jr.

Seeing as I have two versions of Floyd in there, I would say it has to be Floyd. Really, I like anyone who is a defensively sound boxer. The art of hitting and not getting hit. He mastered it.

Current favourite boxers? Crawford, Bivol and Inoue by some margin and then AJ. I get excited for AJ fights but I get excited to watch the aforementioned fighters fight.

Favourite British boxer: Probably between Prince Naz, Joe Calzaghe, Lenox Lewis or the cruiserweight David Haye.
 
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Very hard to look past Ali. Really he is peerless and transcended sport. Few athletes can come close. I defy anyone to watch When We Were Kings and not be blown away by what he did. I only ever saw him fight once live and that was at the end of his career against Leon Spinks ( the rematch I think). I wasn't very old but I still remember it.

Tyson's emergence as a young heavyweight champion was terrifying. I remember the first Bruno fight and being scared for big Frank. However, Tyson was tainted from an early stage with the rape conviction. It's hard for me to bracket him as a great beyond his initial winning streak.

Calzaghe should be up there as an undefeated champion at what is my favourite weight. He had it all but had too many nothing fights where he didn't seem to get out of 3rd gear. The fights with Jones Jr and Hopkins came a bit late. Ray Leonard has to be up there. He beat some tough men - Hagler, Hearns, Duran, Benitez and at two weights.
 
Emanuel Steward said Lewis was the best of the bunch, or did he say probably, I'll have to rewatch
 
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For me the GOAT is Manny Pacquiao, A champion in 8 divisions and on the road to achieve that.

He had mental and physical toughness, speed, great footwork, punching power could switch it up on the fly and also a style that was quite unorthodox, quite a rare bird.

All that combined made him a tough nut to crack, Poor Ricky Hatton never had a chance!
 
Honourable mentions; They're not my outright favourite fighters but I do love to go and watch their highlight reels.

Julian Jackson, GGG, Thomas Hearns, Foreman and Lomachenko.
 
Might not be what you consider to be the greatest, but I always love George Foreman, he is criminally underrated. Wins Olympic gold and then absolutely smashed through the division back in the day in terrifying fashion. Demolished some really good fighters and was only really undone by his mental weaknesses at the time and the brilliance of Ali.

Then he takes 10 years away from boxing, just as he's entering his physical prime, comes back in his late 30's to fund his community centre and slowly works his way back to the top. Takes on a prime Holyfield and gives him a really tough fight, displaying that he had one of the most ridiculous chins in boxing history (Holyfield also says he was never hit as hard in his life and in one round thought all of his teeth had been knocked out). Gets another shot against Tommy Morrison who went from an aggressive come forward slugger to a mobile outside fighter, he wanted none of that smoke and won on points.

Finally he gets the fight against Moorer, bides his time and completely out psyches him, just as Ali did to him 20 years earlier. Sparks him out wearing the same shorts he lost to Ali in, with Jim Lampley also giving one of the greatest calls in the background. Then he till goes on to defend the belt, I think there was a suspect decision in there in his favour, but the consensus is that he was robbed of a decision against Shannon Briggs in his final fight.

He was technically underrated, had ridiculous power (the videos of him hitting the heavy bag are a sight to behold), had a crazy good chin where if you see videos of him these days he still has all his faculties unlike a lot of the other legends from his era ended up like. A young physically primed Foreman, with the temperament and discipline of the Old Foreman would have been insane.
 
Agreed, Foreman not the very best but had an astounding career. His KO of Moorer didn't even look like that hard a punch for him to throw, yet at 46 years old he KO'd a heavy weight champion.

I saw that fight before I knew anything else about him, seeing later documentaries about him in younger days vs Ali 20 years prior, an incredible career. Kept his mental acuity and made huge amounts of money in business via grills after retiring.
 
Junglist said:
Favourite British boxer: Probably between Prince Naz, Joe Calzaghe, Lenox Lewis or the cruiserweight David Haye.
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David Haye certainly made for interesting fights. Never going to be one of the greatest of all time but he did at least step up in a few fights some of the greats would have avoided in case it ended their career.
 
I have no single top, but favour different fighters for different things.

I'm more a fan of the Prizering boxers of old, like James Figg, Jack Broughton and Daniel Mendoza. More science and art than mere sport, and they typically fought rounds with weapons as well as just fists.
In modern terms Sir Henry Cooper was the nicest one I ever met in person and probably one of the more skilled. I got some great advice on techniques from him, which served me well.
Mike Tyson was usually the more entertaining from a pure spectator perspective, but I always liked watching Muhammad Ali using some of the same ringcraft as ^the old guys did. Jake LaMotta did something similar, but with an overwhelming offense instead of a dominant defense.
 
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