Name fighters who have dominated and towered above the rest of their divisions the most. So that for three years (or more) the fighter has 1) proven to be the best 2) not been in difficulties in his fights and 3) hasn't had credible opponents waiting around. It's pretty difficult to find examples. Note that this isn't the same as the greatest fighters ever. This usually requires a combination of a great fighter and a rather weak era. Ray Leonard doesn't qualify for example, since he always had Duran and Hearns challenging so that he couldn't achieve a long-reigning dominance. Klitshkos always had each other to fight, so neither dominated. Mayweather had plenty of believable contenders (especially one) he didn't face. Sonny Liston could have been one, but he wasn't able to prove it before he met Patterson, and he lost his title in his second defense, so he is out. Roy Jones at 168 and Ricardo Lopez at 105 are the closest to fitting examples I quickly came up with
Gomez at 122 was as dominant as any fighter was at a single weight class. His only struggle at the weight was against Pintor, and he was faded by time he fought Pintor.
Ricardo Lopez really fought some putrid opposition. He has no excuse considering that Mike Carbajal and Chuquita Gonzalez were a measly 3 pounds above him, and Too Sharp and Yuri Arbachakov were 7 pounds above him. I credit Chocolatito for daring to be great and moving up from 105. Lopez had no such desire.
Eder Jofre was dominant at 118, save for his two (razor close) losses to Fighting Harada - which can chalked up to the fact that Jofre was killing himself to make 118 by then. He would have greatly benefitted from a super bantamweight division being around in the 60s. Antonio Cervantes dominated 140 for most of the 70s - save for of course, his lost to El Radar. He was 700 years old when he got wiped out by Pryor. I'm trying to name guys outside of the "usual suspects" - i.e. Jones at 168, Whitaker at 135, Floyd at 130, Duran at 135, Tyson in the late 80s.
Even Floyd doesn't count, he was only the clear-cut #1 after beating Chico and he moved up a year later. Duran qualifies after beating DeJesus convincingly enough
Well, Duran certainly qualifies, he cleaned out the entire division. His only challenge would have been Cervantes at 140. I can see by your criteria why Floyd doesn't count. Arguello at 130 was extremely dominant.
Miguel Canto at flyweight was dominant, which is impressive considering that Canto had NO pop whatsoever. Like none... probably even less pop P4P than Willy Pep. Canto's only threat at flyweight would have been the terrific Masao Ohba, but Obba (very similar to Sanchez) died in a car accident at 23.
Carlos Ortiz more-less dominated a very talented lightweight division over the 60s. He had a few inconsistencies here and there, and that can be attributed to the fact that was a huge alcoholic.
I'd like to see what Spinks would have done to Stevenson at 175. Wouldn't have been pretty for the pimp.
He was definitely a few notches below the two top guys of that era. But not a lot of lhw were at their level
I guess the best question would be Stevenson vs Moorer at 175, but I think there's like a 80-90% chance Moorer KOs Stevenson
Hopkins at 160 for a long stretch. He didn't always dominate in terms of destroying his opponents, but he clearly beat them and never looked in any danger of taking an 'L'.
Hopkins certainly had the longevity and the dominance in fights, but did he clean up his division? I believe he only unified in the tournament, and up until that point there were at least somewhat credible questions about him being better than others around
Vincente Saldivar cleaned out an extremely deep featherweight division during his three-year reign (64-67) and did so in dominant fashion.
Pre-plane crash Willie Pep seems to have dominated 126 and even beat some standout lightweights. His only loss was at 135 vs. a HoFer, and in his last fight before his crash he completely crushed ex-champ Chalkey Wright in 3 rounds. Ray Robinson was so dominant as a WW that matchmakers had trouble finding a contender who was willing to fight him for the vacant title. Everyone else suddenly had an urge to campaign at a higher or lower weight. Not sure if they meet the duration requirement, but Henry Armstrong and Harry Greb had two of the greatest runs in all of boxing history. Armstrong was 46-0 (40 KOs) from '37 to mid 39, held titles in 3 major divisions simultaneously, before he battered but controversially lost to Ambers thanks to some questionable low blow deductions. Greb had over 50 fights across 1919 and into early '20, and is credited with dominating nearly all of them (including several against HoFers and even some HW contenders) before he was surprisingly outfought by Tommy Gibbons. Unfortunately, most of these fights were "no decisions," so Greb was never officially credited with his victories.
Looking over Benny Leonard's record, he may be the winner of this thread topic. From winning the LW title in 1917 until his initial retirement (due to a hand injury) at the end of '24, he largely dominated a division that was chock full of HoFers and standout contenders. Here's some of the highlights: -Won the title by scoring the only stoppage of HoFer Freddie Welsh's 160-plus fight career. -Bombed out reigning FW champ (and HoFer) Johnny Kilbane in 3 rounds. -Pummeled ex-champ and HoFer Willie Ritchie into a stoppage. -Credited with winning multiple newspaper decisions over future FW and jr. LW champ (and HoFer) Johnny Dundee. -Successfully defended his title against HoFers Rocky Kansas and Lew Tendler. -Thwarted other dangerous contenders like Richie Mitchell and Charley White. During this time frame, his only official loss was under bizarre circumstances in a challenge for Jack Britton's WW title.
Pascual Perez in the 50s at fly. It was a mediocreish era but he cleaned it out and left no stone unturned. Whitaker cleaned up house in the late eighties and was probably more outright dominant than any lightweight champ ever. Rosario was the only one he didn't face and he'd already been upset by Nazario, who Pea iced in a round not long after. Monzon had a couple of arguably close calls in the Griffith and Valdez rematches but was otherwise streets ahead for years. Foster allowed the light heavy title to splinter by facing chaff for too long but absolutely executed the terrified Rondon when Rondon nabbed a belt. Only Finnegan gave him a drawn out, hard fight, but Foster showed another side to his game in that fight once it became clear that he couldn't just bomb out such a tough, skilled fighter. Not in one weight class, nor with thorough cleaning outs other than at 140, and still with viable fights to prove a point, but Crawford has looked a cut above everyone so far. Just smarter, more versatile and more skilled against a range of styles thus far.
Really wish there was more film on Perez. Its hard to handicap him against the flyweight greats with such limited footage. But on paper, he's definitely the second greatest Argentinian behind Monzon.
