Tale of the Tape | Should Manny Pacquiao be ranked below Floyd Mayweather as the greatest boxer of all time?
- Retired US superstar tops the BoxRec list by a long way but Philippines icon is hot on his heels
- Muhammad Ali is ranked fourth with ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson ranked a lowly 70 in controversial list
Who is the greatest boxer of all time? BoxRec, the respected boxing website that updates all professional records by the minute, this week came up with an all-time greatest boxers list and it has already stirred controversy by putting Floyd Mayweather Jnr in top spot.
No one can question Mayweather’s achievements with a magnificent 50-0-0 record, 27 of those bouts coming by way of knockout, but this was an “all-time” pound-for-pound list and whether the retired American superstar is heads and shoulders above the rest is debatable.
His rival, Manny Pacquiao, is No 2 on the list ahead of Argentine middleweight great Carlos Monzon and Muhammad Ali, surprisingly, only took fourth place.
Sugar Ray Robinson, the boxer who transcended race and sport and went unbeaten for 91 consecutive bouts, was fifth ahead of “ageless” Bernard Hopkins and the “Brown Bomber” – heavyweight champion Joe Louis, who landed in seventh place.
How did BoxRec come up with its list? Win and loss record and quality of opponents plus reign as world champion probably came into consideration. We are not sure what other criteria was used that helped calculate the tennis-like rankings.