Looking at George's list, there's just no possible way to exclude Duran's lightweight reign. Its a mandatory top 10, if not even top 3.
The main factors I'd consider for a great title reign are: Dominance Consistency Beating all available competition Longevity Unbeaten Talent of opposition obviously plays a part too but there are very few title reigns - maybe none at all - that include all of the above plus amazing opposition.
Yeah, I think that has to be top 10. I might swap out Armstrong at welter to make room for Duran at around the same spot.
Aw fuck, I knew I forgot someone. Ken Buchanan, Hector Thompson, Guts Ishimatsu, Esteban DeJesus 2x, Ray Lampkin, Edwin Viruet, Leoncio Ortiz, Saoul Mamby, Lou Bizzarro, Vilomar Fernandez.... And people say he only has the Leonard win...
I wouldn't have Duran top three though; Gans and Leonard's reigns were more impressive IMO, I think it's arguable it's a little worse than Monzon and Hagler's.
1. Joe Louis 2. Archie Moore 3. Benny Leonard 4. Roberto Duran 5. Carlos Monzon 6. Marvin Hagler 7. Willie Pep 8. Manuel Ortiz 9. Wilfredo Gomez 10. Miguel Canto
No-one has mentioned it yet and it didn't make my top 10 but Pascual Perez had a pretty impressive run at flyweight.
I think Duran, Monzon and Hagler's reigns are on par with each other. I had them 4, 5 and 6 respectively. Not much in it at all.
#10. Wilfredo Gomez #09. Manuel Ortiz #08. Marvin Hagler #07. Carlos Monzon #06. Roberto Duran #05. Joe Gans #04. Henry Armstrong #03. Benny Leonard #02. Archie Moore #01. Joe Louis
Nah, that was Kid Dynamite. He's been gone for like... maybe 15 years now. I'm referring to Slystaff, who left maybe like 3-4 years ago.
There's no way I can look past someone like Canto for the flyweights. Laciar and Oba had more impressive reigns too IMO.
I actually think Benny Leonard's run as champ checks all the boxes (including the part about amazing opposition). The only problem is that there's some dispute over which of his fights are "official" title defenses, since the sport wasn't as well regulated back then.
Lightweight really has had some of the greatest long-reigning dominant champions: Gans, Leonard, Williams, Joe Brown, Ortiz and Duran. Not to mention guys like Tony Canzoneri...
You know, I was just thinking that Leonard's probably is the one above all of them that does have amazing opposition to add to all the other pre-requisites.
Reign aside, Galindez was a better fighter than Laciar. Just had an extra gear to tap into that Laciar didn't have.