10 Best Modern era boxers..

By modern era i mean the late 70s to the present. The post ali era. Ali's last great fight was in 75 against frazier in manila but he wasn't that good after that and when sugar ray leonard won his first title in 79 it ushered in a new era when lighter weight fighters not just heavyweights got their due.

The best fighter up to 1930 was probably jack johnson though willie pep gives him a run for the money. From 1930 to the 1960 it's probably sugar ray robinson but joe jouis, marciano, henry armstrong all deserve mention. Ali for the next 17-18 years.

In the last 30 years there have been dozens of great fighters holding titles for a long time or winning multiple titles in several weight classes. It's not an easy call. How complete a fighter is and his ability to adapt to different styles was a factor and of course his record against other top fighters.

I list 10 with 15 fighters in the honorable mention category. I'm sure someone will tell me how i'm wrong. We can also debate how certain fighters might have fared against each other. Whitaker vs duran, leonard vs trinidad etc. I have an idea how those fights would have turned out do you? It is how i decided on my list..

 

10 best fighters of the modern era..

1. Roberto Duran(Lightweight to middleweight)
2. Ray Leonard(Welterwight to middleweight)
3. Pernell whitaker(Lightweight to welterweight)
4. Salvador Sanchez(Featherweight)
5. Floyd Mayweather jr.(Super feather-junior middle)
6. Roy jones jr.(Middle-heavyweight)
7. Alexis Arguello(featherweight-lightweight)
8. Marvin Hagler(middle)
9. Julio chesar Chavez(junior lightweight-junior welter)
10.Bernard Hopkins(middle)

Honorable mention

*Manny Pacquiao
Oscar de la hoya
Meldrick taylor
Felix trinidad
Larry Holmes
Micheal Spinks
Marcus antonio Barerra
Erik Morales
Wilfredo Gomez
Evander Holyfield
Mike Tyson
Tony Ayala jr.
Aaron Pryor
Tommy Hearns
Wilfredo benitez
Lennox lewis
Shane Mosley
Kostya Tszyu

Who have i left out? Who in the honorable mention list belongs in the top 10? Notice that no heavyweight made the top 10. 4 made the HM list. All 4 are tainted just enough in some way or another to not be worthy of the top 10. I put the asterisk next to pacquiao because he is still fighting at the top of his game and may force himself into that top 10. He is 3-1 collectively against morales and barerra 2 fighters on the HM list. Notice how i wimped out and put 16 fighters on the HM list. Couldn't decide.

Edit: Added a 17th HM fighter in shane mosley..

 

Kostya Tszyu?

He's close but never had to beat a real top fighter. Beat chavez when he was way past his prime. Livingstone bramble, shamba mitchell, vince phillips. I'll put him on the HM list because he had so many title defenses but he should have moved up and tried to fight a de la hoya or trinidad. Around the time tszyu had his 10th title defense shane mosley was still a lightweight, de la hoya and trinidad were just one weight class above him.

Roberto duran was the same height and body type as tszyu and fought most of his career in the weight class just below tszyu but had the balls to move up 12 pounds to welter and fight leonard twice, fought hearns and benitez 7 pounds heavier at 154 and even held his own against hagler one of the all time middleweights at 160! Duran fighting hagler was like tszyu fighting hopkins! He should have made the move and took some of those guys on.. Would have made lots of money doing it..

 

Move over sugar ray tex cobb is taking over your place pal.:ha:


Danny little red lopez..

His career ended on the cusp of the beginning of this modern era. Still i'm tempted to put him on the HM list. He won his first 21 fights by knockout and 39 of his 42 victories were by knockout. He fought 2 epic wars with the late great salvador sanchez and was knocked out late and called it quits after that. That was in 1980. Sanchez would die in a car crash in Mexico in 1982.