How many times have the 2 recognised best boxers ever fought before?

[Dark Lord Al]

Here is one , RJJ v James Toney , both unbeaten they must have been right at the top of the top 10.

[Fenster]

Here is one , RJJ v James Toney , both unbeaten they must have been right at the top of the top 10.

The Ring have Whitaker no.1 for the year 1994.

Toney isn't even in the top 10, which is surely a reaction to his loss. They had him no.3 for 1993.

[jdonaher1]

The last time for sure was when Sweet Pea fought Chavez in 1993.

[JazMerkin]

The only other one in recent times was Whitaker vs Chavez. The Pound For Pound debate only really became official in the 90s, although there's a few other fights you could strongly argue to be between the best 2 fighters in the world.

Leonard-Duran might well have been although I believe there were people who might have argued for Salvador Sanchez or Alexis Arguello being one of the top 2 at that point. Fighting Harada-Eder Jofre is a possibility, but it's hard to say either was acknowledged as the best fighter in the world at the time, that may be retrospect creeping in.

The only other fight that I can say you would have to say was between the best 2 fighters in the world at the time was the Hank Armstrong-Barney Ross fight, who were considered the two best, although this was before anyone really used the term Pound for Pound. A similar argument could be made for the Billy Conn-Joe Louis fight, as Conn was considered the best at that point in time with Louis certainly around the top.

But, with pound for pound being a relatively new phenomena in being ranked, it is hard to judge.