Ranking fighters across different eras is a tricky business. Who was the greatest heavyweight of all time? That is a question that has resulted in endless debate among boxing fans throughout the years as one era transitions into the next with the passage of time. Many say it was Muhammad Ali. Other claim Joe Louis. And others still might be capable of making a solid case for one of any number of worthy contenders to the throne.
So who is the greatest heavyweight of all time? That’s a question that will not truly be addressed in this video, at least not directly. Instead, this video poses a ranking experiment in an effort to objectively rank heavyweight boxers over time by decade. In order to try and remain objective and remove personal bias from the equation, the experiment relies on the rich archives of historical rankings from Ring Magazine.
Ring Magazine began doing rankings for the heavyweight division in 1924, so for the purpose of this video, our journey begins in the 1930s, which was the first full decade with a complete data set to work with. Venture with us through the best heavyweights from the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and even a quick glimpse as to how things currently stand in the 2010s. Some of the results are predictable, some surprising, and some are even quite unexpected.
The idea here is to try and eliminate personal bias 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 during the time span of each individual decade that will be covered in this edition of Rummy’s Corner. This is the first in a series of “by decade” videos that will be released in the coming weeks. Please watch and enjoy this, the first in the new series of videos!