Name your top-5 list of the most important fighters of the history. The ones without whom the sport and its culture would just not be the same. It is easy to name thirty or fifty guys but when you have to narrow it down to five it is harder. Ali is obviously #1 but after that it gets tricky. Personally I would list Dempsey (first modern superstar), Robinson (tbe), Tyson (brought the sport to the new age) and Chavez (expanded the sport outside Anglo-American world).
Jack Johnson Ali Louis Tyson Leonard Johnson, Ali, Louis, and Tyson are easy choices. I say Leonard because he's the one who made it possible for non-heavyweights to become big money, crossover stars. Without Leonard, you might not have ever seen guys like Oscar, Pac, Floyd, Cotto, and Canelo making big money. They can all thank Ray. However, I concede that there's a legit case to be made for Robinson in place of Leonard. Robinson introduced the whole concept and discussion of P4P.
I don't think any list can NOT have Johnson, Ali, and Tyson. Not to sound like too much of a Tyson groupie, but let's be very honest.... without Mike.... boxing would have totally faded into obscurity, and it might be dead today. That's why I think it's ironic that anyone can be a boxing fanatic and Tyson hater at the same time. We owe A GREAT DEAL of the sport we love to Mike.
Sullivan - the first true "Heavyweight Champion"... he was the sport's first great star, boastful and self-promoting, a spectacle and known throughout the western world... made the sport popular Johnson - self explanatory, really... the first black man to hold the coveted Heavyweight Championship, he didn't open the door but he showed that it was closed because of fears of inferiority, rather than because of confidence of superiority Jack Dempsey- the first fully formed proper pressure fighter... he was also a massive star which meant his style was adopted, imitated and ultimately improved Benny Leonard - the first real modern style stick and move boxer, first to really illustrate what lateral movement could do and how defense could create offense ... like Dempsey, widely imitated and eventually improved and refined ... the two of them changed the game completely Ali - the most famous boxer of all time world wide, essentially transcends the sport itself ... people who have never watched one second of boxing know the name Muhammad Ali... any list without him is objectively wrong
I'm sure the equine has his own ideas about who introduced the stick and move/slick defensive style. BTW, I feel like any list without Tyson is objectively wrong. You said yourself he got you into the sport. Without Mike, many of us might not even be on this forum discussing boxing today.
Good stuff. Wasn't Corbett the first "gloved" heavyweight champion though? I know there is some dispute about it.
He was, since he won the first championship bout where gloves were used. I don't think there is any dispute over the fact, except maybe that the best blacks were not allowed to participate. His opponent in that first fight was Sullivan, who had been the champion for the past ten years in the bare-knuckle era and had earned million dollars. Sullivan is definitely a good pick for the list, Corbett doesn't belong
Ali Dempsey Johnson Louis Tyson (He was so exciting he was almost a comic book character. Since Tyson everyone has been looking for the next Tyson) Basically all heavyweights...that division is what carries the sport.
