135
I was just watching a video about the greatest lightweights. I hadn't thought about it before, but four out of my top ten all timers held that division's title at one point. Another lightweight (Ike Williams) only just misses making it. That sure makes a case for 135 pounds, and not middleweight, being boxing's greatest division. Of the four lightweights I'd put in my top ten (Roberto Duran, Benny Leonard, Joe Gans, and Henry Armstrong in that order), the videos showed Armstrong to be by far the least accomplished. That's a pretty staggering thing to have to say about Henry Armstrong. But Gans was a synthesis of Jack Johnson and Joe Louis (but better than either of them), Benny Leonard was a defensive and strategic genius who also punched with terrifying power and accuracy, and Duran was Duran.
posted by Charles Farrell @ 5:12 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I've always felt that the Lightweight division was the deepest with all-time great Fighters. Middleweight is second, but as Charles mentioned, Duran, Leonard, Gans and Armstrong are usually included in the top-10 pound-for-pound rating of all-time greats.
I think Gans gets overlooked the most among fans/historians under 50 years old. Yet fundamentally, he's probably the best of the group, and was the only true boxer-puncher among them.
Frank, I agree that Gans gets overlooked by younger fans/historians. Films of him (like all old fight films) give, at best, a semi-accurate illustration of what he was doing. Still, two things come across strongly in spite of the antiquated filming techniques. First, his movement is extraordinarily elegant for his era. And his one-punch knockout power borders on the unbelievable. He lands his punches exactly where he wants to. And when he does, his opponents drop like they've been nailed by a stun gun. Check it out--he hits them, and they fall straight down in a heap. If it's amazing that Armstrong is only the fourth best of this lightweight group, it's got to be at least as amazing that, of the top three, Roberto Duran (who I still maintain is the greatest ever lightweight) is the weakest puncher.
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