Five Greatest Boxer of All Time
Posted by admin | Posted in Sport | Posted on 24-03-2010-05-2008
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Any time you put together a record of “5 Best” anything, you’re bound to make an argument. But that’s half the amusement of it: learning other people’s take on the same thing. It’s no different with boxing. Every boxing admirer has a Top 5 list and stoutly defends it. There are a few boxing champions that everybody accepts should be in the Top 5, but where they fall within that list is the subject of discussion. So, based on several sources, here are the Five Greatest Boxing Champions of All Time.
1. Sugar Ray Robinson, Middleweight, 1940-1965. This was near universal, although a couple of people put Ali here for more emotional motives. Ali himself, anyway, who was known for calling himself “The Greatest,” has said that Robinson (born Walker Smith, Jr.) was in reality the greatest boxer of all time. Concurring are boxing champions Sugar Ray Leonard and Joe Louis, the Associated Press, ESPN, and The Ring magazine. Robinson lived from 1921 to 1989. After retiring from boxing, he was diagnosed with diabetes and ultimately with Alzheimer’s disease and deceased in 1989. The U.S. Postal Service featured Robinson in a commemorative stamp in 2006.
2. Muhammad Ali, Heavyweight, 1960-1981. What more can be said about Muhammad Ali? He was a 1960 Olympic gold medalist and the title of numerous books and flicks. Despite being stripped of his Heavyweight championship for his opposition to the Vietnam War (he was a draftee), he remains one of the most admired American public figures ever. Ali’s conviction on draft avoidance was unanimously overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971. Named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated in 1999, and Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC, Ali still makes casual public appearances despite being disabled by Parkinson’s syndrome.
3. Henry Armstrong, Lightweight, Welterweight, 1932-1945. Born Henry Melody Jackson, Jr. to a sharecropper and an Iriquois Native American, Armstrong won boxing championships in the Lightweight, Welterweight, and Featherweight partitions. Armstrong’s true record isn’t certainly clear, because he also fought under the sobriquet Melody Jackson, but as Henry Armstrong, he was the sole boxer to hold three world championships at the same time.
4. Joe Louis, Heavyweight, 1934-1951. Louis’s real name was Joseph Louis Barrow, and he lived from 1914 to 1981. Louis’ nickname was the Brown Bomber, and he had renown as a sincere boxer when the sport was controlled by gambling benefits. The International Boxing Research Organization named Louis as the greatest heavyweight ever, and he was also ranked #1 by The Ring Magazine in its list of 100 Greatest Punchers of All Time. Others listed in the number 4 spot contain Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, and Rocky Marciano.
5. Willie Pep, Featherweight, 1940-1966. Willie Pep’s real name was Guglielmo Papaleo, and he lived from 1922 to 2006. His last record was 230-11-1, with 65 KOs. Pep was inducted into the Worldwide Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. Other names referred in this spot include George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Archie Moore.

