What makes an ATG?

[VG_Addict]

What do you think makes a fighter an ATG? Skills?

IMO, the #1 criteria for an ATG is resume. Anybody can look good against bums, but it takes a great fighter to beat top competition. Just as important as WHO you've fought, is WHEN you fought them. A win over a great fighter is less impressive if said fighter was past his prime. The sign of a TRULY great fighter is one who not only consistently beats top opponents, but dominates them.

[fan johnny]

What do you think makes a fighter an ATG? Skills?

IMO, the #1 criteria for an ATG is resume. Anybody can look good against bums, but it takes a great fighter to beat top competition. Just as important as WHO you've fought, is WHEN you fought them. A win over a great fighter is less impressive if said fighter was past his prime. The sign of a TRULY great fighter is one who not only consistently beats top opponents, but dominates them.

There is no such thing. It's perception via opinion. Everything is hypothetical. There is no tangible criteria making an ATG in your mind only.

[walrus]

What do you think makes a fighter an ATG? Skills? Y yt?

IMO, the #1 criteria for an ATG is resume. Anybody can look good against bums, but it takes a great fighter to beat top competition. Just as important as WHO you've fought, is WHEN you fought them. A win over a great fighter is less impressive if said fighter was past his prime. The sign of a TRULY great fighter is one who not only consistently beats top opponents, but dominates them.

There is no such thing. It's perception via opinion. Everything is hypothetical. There is no tangible criteria making an ATG in your mind only.

Disagree respectfully, all time greats can be found in any sport. Ted Williams, all time great baseball player, OJ Simpson, all time great American football player, some European, all time great soccer player.

[Beanflicker]

It's a combination of ability and resume. Legendary names who will always be remembered and brought up by boxing fans decades after they're gone.

[C.J.Rock]

To be an ATG a fighter MUST take on ALL legitimate contenders. No ducking & diving
A fighter can have all the natural God Given boxing talent in the world , but that alone will not5 make him an ATG. To be the best he's got to fight the best. To have a bogus 0 & claim to be TBE isn't enough. Its time to man up or get the heck out of boxing & let the REAL ATG's fight it out

[goti71]

Beating the best in your era and being lucky enough to get a couple of them while they're in thier prime, i.e., no question marks.

Edit: So ATG is mostly an illusion imho. You could easily add an * to almost anyone's record.

[beenKOed]

It's a combination of ability and resume. Legendary names who will always be remembered and brought up by boxing fans decades after they're gone.

Longevity helps too.

[El Kabong]

Anybody can look good against bums

You say that BUT there are plenty of examples of GREAT fighters having big trouble with guys who were supposed to be pushovers. If you get the right tomato can, yeah you can look like a million bucks, but if you get a dog with some fight in him he'll work you hard and make you look bad.

[VG_Addict]

IMO, the step to making a prospect into a great fighter is to put him in against guys with all kinds of styles, who will give him different looks.

Floyd fought a southpaw in only his 2nd professional fight.

[Beanflicker]

IMO, the step to making a prospect into a great fighter is to put him in against guys with all kinds of styles, who will give him different looks.

Floyd fought a southpaw in only his 2nd professional fight.

Yup. People constantly shit on guys like Floyd and Wlad and try to claim they aren't ATGs, but those guys have fought and consistently beat just about every style and body type you can think of.

[El Kabong]

Wlad has fought more southpaws in title fights than anyone else I can think of. It wasn't until 1966 when Ali fought Karl Mildenberger, that a southpaw actually fought for the heavyweight title....Wlad has fought: Tony Thompson x 2, Chris Byrd x 2, Corrie Sanders, Ruslan Chagaev, Sultan Ibragimov, and Francisco Pianetta....that's a lot of southpaws for a heavyweight to fight.

[Beanflicker]

But people will put a guy like Gene Tunney or Jack Dempsey over Wlad, guys who never had to fight southpaws and ducked all black challengers

[El Kabong]

But people will put a guy like Gene Tunney or Jack Dempsey over Wlad, guys who never had to fight southpaws and ducked all black challengers

Gene Tunney was a great fighter, great light heavyweight. Jack Dempsey was THE superstar of his era....these are things we can't argue with, but you're right they didn't fight all of the best fighters out there, same as Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb didn't hit against Black Pitchers (not that it would have mattered all that much just due to talent)...it raises doubts but not enough to really dismiss their greatness.

But to that end, Wlad has done an excellent job as Champion and is certainly and All-Time Great, I just think it's a shame that pussy Nicolay Valuev never fought Wlad or Vitali, and never really even pressed to.

[Beanflicker]

Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb would have been second rate if they had to play against blacks and so would Dempsey and Tunney.

[SlimTrae]

Anybody can look good against bums

You say that BUT there are plenty of examples of GREAT fighters having big trouble with guys who were supposed to be pushovers. If you get the right tomato can, yeah you can look like a million bucks, but if you get a dog with some fight in him he'll work you hard and make you look bad.

Wow, we're in sync this week. I was going to say to some degree fighting top ranked fighters may not matter if they all have a style that the ATG in question has dominated.

The 1970's HW upset thread bares witness to your [dog with some fight in him]- claim all day.