Quote Originally Posted by TitoFan View Post
I don't have a problem with Floyd being designated an ATG. But people get carried away with the comparisons. I invite people on here to obtain and watch SRL's fights against Duran, Hearns, Hagler, and Benitez. Only THEN can you pass judgement objectively. Those were glory days in boxing, and all of the above were ATGs as well. Floyd deserves the credit he's getting... but do some research before you annoint him The Greatest Ever in Boxing.
Well hell, I don't claim to be the #1 boxing historian out there, but I'm an avid collector of boxing tapes. I have career sets of just about everyone I've mentioned here (Hearns, Hagler, SRL, Duran, Pernell, Benitez, ect). I'm also a self-professed SRR FANATIC, and I think over the years I've seen just about every one of his fights that was filmed. So even though I'm not the most knowledgable guy here, I do my homework, and I'm not talking out of my ass with some fan boy Floyd nuthuggery.

All I'm saying is when I pop a Floyd fight into my DVD player, I see the same greatness that I see when I pop in the fights of other ATGs. When valuing a guy as a fighter, statistics and resume is fine, but at the end of the day it comes down to your in-ring work. And I contend that not only does Floyd match the in-ring work of a lot of these ATGs, he actually exceeds the vast majority of them.

Whenever I ask why Floyd doesn't belong in the same catagory with a guy like SRR, I always get the same answers...

"Well he ducked a bunch of guys."

Who did he duck? And pretty much every ATG (including SRR and SRL) has been accused of ducking someone or other.

"Well the old timers fought 100's of times, Floyd only fought 40 times."

Well, these guys fought before the time of multi-million dollar pay days. I doubt SRR fought several times a month because he wanted to. He was like Floyd, he was an arrogant master athlete who had a taste for fine living. Just because they had it "tougher" than today's greats does not mean necessarily that they were better.

"Those guys had better resumes than Floyd"

Maybe so. I would argue how guys like Jake LaMotta, Joey Archer and Bobo Olsen were better than guys like JLC, Hatton, Mosley, ect but thats for another thread I guess. But what is tough adversity good for other than exposing whether or not a fighter has the certain qualities that make for a champion? Qualities like heart, determination, toughness, mental composure, ability to take punishment, adapt, ect. Floyd has shown all of these qualities in battle, so what more can you ask of him?