Ranking fighters across different eras is always a very tricky business, but it is also a lot of fun. In Part 1 of the new “Top 10 by Decade” series, we explored the heavyweight division with a new scoring experiment designed to try and objectively identify the Top 10 heavyweights from each decade, starting with the 1930s. Then we examined the cruiserweight division in Part 2, and here in Part 3 we continue our journey south with our focus on the light heavyweight division.
For the light heavyweight division, Ring Magazine began doing divisional rankings way back in 1924, so for the purposes of this latest installment in our rankings experiment, our journey begins with the 1930s, because this is the first full decade with a complete data set to work with. The cruiserweight division is much newer, so we don’t have the same historical depth in our analysis. But the light heavyweight division is one of the original 8 weight classes, just like the heavyweight division. And this provides us with the opportunity to explore 8 complete decades worth of data.
And that is a great thing, because the light heavyweight division is historically one of the greatest divisions in boxing history. Many a great champion has campaigned as a light heavyweight, including but not limited to such all time greats as Archie Moore, Ezzard Charles, Bob Foster, Roy Jones Jr, John Henry Lewis, and Victor Emilio Galindez just to name a few.
The main idea here is to try and eliminate personal bias and individual preferences, while also excluding all head-to-head considerations, both real and hypothetical. It is more a measurement of tracking the boxers who had the most prolonged success in a given weight class during very specific time intervals. This edition of Rummy’s Corner is the third episode in a series of “Top 10 by Decade” videos that will be released over the course of the coming weeks. Please watch and enjoy this, the third installment in this new series of videos – the light heavyweight division!