Many boxing historians have attempted the impossible by scribing who they consider to be the best of the best.   Some names leave an indelible mark on the subconscious and are at the fore-front of the mind as soon as the big question is asked, 'so just who was the best of them all? '  So daring to step into the lion's den  I too thought to take time out and give you my compilation of the best pound-for-pound fighters of all time.  Alas, my favourite, Aaron ‘the hawk’ Pryor isn’t amongst them.

 

Though I have been a boxing fan for more than 35 years, I had, up to a few years ago, never taken the time to ponder who the best of the best in each weight class was.  My curiosity piqued, I spent more than 100 hours consulting record books, DVD's and websites in an attempt to separate the elite from the merely great.  During this deeply gratifying process, I learned many things about some of the sport’s more obscure champions, and by the time I completed my list, I wanted to do even more.  So I decided to do a little extra work – choosing the 10 greatest pound-for-pound champions in history.

 

Mind you, a project like this meant one had to exclude an incredible number of outstanding fighters.  Picking the 10 best out of the hundreds of thousands who have stepped between the ropes - and doing it in such a way that would inspire even a modicum of agreement from others - is an impossible task.  Every fight fan has his own idea of what greatness is, and more often than not the list will feature an inordinate number of his contemporaries because those are the fighters he knows best.  Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer was a classic example of this phenomenon as his list, even in the 1960s, mostly had fighters retired for decades.

 

To make this task somewhat easier, I limited the pool of fighters to those who actually became champions.  Gauging the greatness of uncrowned legends like Sam Langford - whom were denied their rightful opportunities to face the very best with titles on the line - would have complicated the already subjective nature of the exercise.  In simpler terms, I didn’t want my head to explode.

 

When I assembled my divisional lists, I considered only what was achieved during each fighter’s championship reign but with the pound-for-pound list I extended my scope to their entire career.  Their deeds as champion certainly weighed heavily into the equation but pre- and post-title accomplishments were considered as well.  So without further adieu, here is one man’s opinion of who occupies boxing’s Mount Olympus. Let the arguing begin.