There have been hundreds of boxing champions since the beginning of the 20th century. Although I hope to someday have put every single one into my rankings, so far I've gone through the careers of 298.
Every once in a while I come across a true great that I missed. I wasn't watching a lot of boxing from 1995 through 2005 so there were some guys in that era that I'm unaware of.
I was updating Virgil Hill's score after his loss a couple of weeks ago and I found Dariusz "The Tiger" Michalczewski. The Polish light heavy and cruiserweight was 25-2 in world title fights. These were mainly WBO battles where he was 24-1 with 20 knockouts. He held the WBO light heavyweight title from 1994 to 2003.
Hill was his biggest victory. In 1997 Michalczewski won a unanimous decision to win the WBA, WBO and IBF light heavyweight titles. Michalczewski never defended the WBA and IBF titles, though because of the silly rules by sanctioning bodies that continue to screw up the sport.
According to Wikipedia, "the WBA stripped him for displaying its belt along with that of the WBO, an organization it didn't recognize. The IBF did so a few weeks later, when Michalczewski refused to defend his title against mandatory challenger William Guthrie within 30 days."
In any case, once I ran Michalczewski's career through my system, he came in a solid 67th. Just after Chiquita Gonzalez and just before Miguel Angel Cotto.
Jorge Arce also picked up a win over the weekend. It was a non-title bout but enough to maintain his 88th ranking since everyone below Michalczewski dropped a spot.
Here is the updated all-time ranking from No. 60 through No. 100. I'll publish the whole list on Jan. 1.
Rank, fighter, years, country, points
60. Tony Canzoneri, 1925-39, U.S., 50.462
61. Harry Greb, 1913-26, U.S., 50.428
62. Joe Calzaghe, 1993-07, United Kingdom, 50.066
63. Emile Griffith, 1958-77, U.S., 49.510
64. Naseem Hamed, 1992-02, United Kingdom, 49.407
65. Duilio Loi, 1948-62, Italy, 49.393
66. Chiquita Gonzalez, 1984-95, Mexico, 49.129
67. Dariusz Michalczewski, 1991-05, Poland, 49.014
68. Miguel Angel Cotto, 2001-07, Puerto Rico, 48.953
69. Michael Carbajal, 1989-99, Canada, 48.949
70. Sam Langford, 1902-26, U.S., 48.874
71. Erik Morales, 1993-07, Mexico, 48.733
72. Nino Benvenuti, 1961-71, Italy, 48.634
73. Jackie Kid Berg, 1924-45, U.S., 48.427
74. Pernell Whitaker, 1984-01, U.S., 48.342
75. Hector Camacho, 1980-05, Puerto Rico, 48.225
76. Sugar Shane Mosley, 1993-07, U.S., 48.194
77. Ike Williams, 1940-55, U.S., 48.142
78. Juan Carlos Gomez, 1995-07, Cuba, 48.011
79. Jack Dempsey, 1914-27, U.S., 47.989
80. Panama Al Brown, 1922-42, Panama, 47.827
81. James Toney, 1988-07, U.S., 47.664
82. John Henry Lewis, 1928-39, U.S., 47.645
83. Marcel Cerdan, 1934-49, France, 47.400
84. Marco Antonio Barrera, 1989-07, Mexico, 47.366
85. Ricky Hatton, 1997-07, United Kingdom, 47.348
86. Fabrice Tiozzo, 1988-06, France, 47.309
87. Wilfredo Benitez, 1973-90, Puerto Rico, 47.300
88. Jorge Arce, 1996-07, Mexico, 47.260
89. Freddie Welsh, 1905-22, United Kingdom, 47.195
90. Maxie Rosenbloom, 1923-39, U.S., 47.021
91. Myung Woo Yuh, 1982-93, South Korea, 46.932
92. Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, 1994-07, Thailand, 46.803
93. William Joppy, 1993-07, U.S., 46.681
94. Bob Montgomery, 1938-50, U.S., 46.669
95. Lou Ambers, 1932-41, U.S., 46.542
96. Sven Ottke, 1997-04, Germany, 46.465
97. Victor Galindez, 1969-80, Argentina, 46.378
98. Mickey Walker, 1919-35, U.S., 46.378
99. Orlando Canizales, 1984-99, U.S., 46.371
100. Jimmy Wilde, 1910-23, United Kingdom, 46.333
No comments:
Post a Comment