Trying to rank boxers across different eras is a difficult task, but it can also be a lot of fun, and hopefully that has been the case, and continues to be the case, with this ongoing rankings experiment where we attempt to rank the best boxers from each weight class across different decades. Today’s division of emphasis is the junior welterweight division.
In Part 1 of the new “Top 10 by Decade” series, we began by exploring the heavyweight division with a formula designed to try and objectively identify the Top 10 heavyweights from each decade. Then we we worked our way south to the cruiserweights, the light heavyweights, the super middleweight, the junior middleweights, the welterweights, and today in part 8 it’s the junior welterweights – or, if you prefer, the super lightweights.
For the junior welterweight division, Ring Magazine began doing divisional rankings way back in 1928, but they stopped doing this after 1931. Then they resumed doing rankings for the weight class in 1962, and continued doing so until 1986 when they again discontinued the practice. The renewed the policy beginning in 1989.
The junior welterweight division lacks the rich history and tradition that correlates with the original eight weight classes. But there have still been some very talented boxers to have competed in the weight class, including Julio Cesar Chavez, Antonio Cervantes, Jose Napoles, Wilfred Benitez, Ricky Hatton, Kostya Tszyu, Aaron Pryor, and even guys like Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao had brief stints in the division.
The main idea here with these ranking experiments 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 over the duration of a specific decade. This edition of Rummy’s Corner is the eighth 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 eighth installment in this new series of videos – the junior welterweight division! Or, if you prefer, the super lightweight division!