All Time Favourite Boxer??

So many great names in over 100 years of pugilism, from Dempsey through to Tyson, Willie Pep to Roberto Duran, Ali, Frazer, Marciano, Louis....take your pick!

My all time favourite the Brown Bomber, Joe Louis, so humble and respectful of his opponents, fought through the segregation period. Don't forget he fought perhaps the biggest fight of the 20th Century against Max Schmeling, the darling of the Nazi Party and one of Hitler's favourite athletes.

In the modern times I was a huge Tyson fan, sure he was a little controversial, but he brought excitement and attention back to boxing. As for now, I'm a big Miguel Cotto fan.

im a young guy so my favorite boxers were guys like de la hoya, chavez, roy jones jr, tyson, etc

That former heavyweight champ who was at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics last night. What was his name??

Ali. Muhammad Ali.

Speaking of Joe Louis.... I'd see him on tv when I was a kid. My father always was kind of sad when he saw Louis in those days (the 1960s)....he'd tell me how great Louis was back in the day. Kind of like how I see Ali today. It's so sad to see my favorite fighter ravaged by a disease and age.

My brother-in-law and I used to go to many fights at the (old) Madison Square Garden. We'd go to see the welter and middleweights of the day.... Emile Griffith was our favorite, but some of the old timers like Gene Fullmer and Carmen Basilio were great to talk about.

I grew up in the era of Ali/Frazier/Holmes/Foreman/Norton etc... when you could actually watch a heavyweight championship bout on ABC Wide World of Sports late Saturday afternoons! For Free!

I'm an old soul so I gotta go with The Brockton Blockbuster... Rocco Francis Marchegiano (Rocky Marciano).

Joe Frazier is my all-time favorite. I pulled up to a red light on South Street in Philly in the Summer of 1983, looked to my right and he was driving the convertible next to me.

I also was a big fan of Larry Holmes, whose first few pro fights I got to see in the Scranton CYC. In fact, my Uncle Jack was part of the local group, who arranged the cards.

Many years ago I was driving in Manhattan and I was stuck in heavy traffic entering the West Side Hwy. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper and moving very slowly so nobody would "block the box" after the traffic signals changed. One car ahead of me, the driver "lost it" and leaned on his horn to signal his anger at the way the car in front of him was proceeding. That first car's driver stopped his car, got out and SLOWLY walked back to confront the horn blower. All I could see was the horn blower sliding down in his seat and rolling up his window as the guy approached his car. I swear the guy was Sonny Liston!! (the guy said something to the horn blower, which I could not hear, but it shut the horn blower up).

mickey ward. he was far from a world beater but you just knew that every fight he was in was gonna be a great one. the first fight i ever went to just happened to be his first fight with gatti, who deserves mention as well. the feeling i got watching that fight was hard to describe. i loved mickey wards body punching, something you dont see alot of.

To follow up on that note I was also a huge Gatti fan, don't need to explain why when you see his fights with Ward.

those fights were crazy. i was at the second fight as well, missed the third. the 2nd and 3rd fights were good, but the first fight along with corrales/castillo and hagler/hearns were the best three fights ever imo. hard to argue with that.

true that

I can only imagine pissing off a guy, and finding out it's Sonny Liston.

I was kind of scared just pulling up alongside Frazier, and When I said, "Hiya, Champ," I think my voice cracked.

Muhammad Ali followed closely by Sugar Ray Leonard.

Growing up in the late 70s and 80s, I LOVED boxing. It was great to see fights by Boom Boom Mancini, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Duran, Thomas Hearns, Larry Holmes, and others. It's such a shame that Don King and other bad promoters just completely ruined the sport.

Frazier, Hagler, Ward, Benn and Tapia!!

I likes my scrappers

You would have loved an older second cousin of mine, who fought in local bouts: Robert "Maddog" Mulgrew. He described himself as a "blood and snot" fighter. He won more than he lost, but he didn't fight anyone of consequence.

He joined the Navy where he had his most successful fights...on barroom floors in the Phillipines.

For me, favorites are the middleweights of the 50s like Carmen Basilio, Robinison, and Fullmer. They not only were boxers, they were fighters.

Don't forget Bobo Olsen.

Another favorite of mine was Frankie DePaula, a light heavy who was a real banger. I saw him fight Dick Tiger in one of best matches ever... a real slugfest.

DePaula died way too young after being shot. He was allegedly killed because he was involved with a mob boss' girlfriend.

Yeah, I left out Tiger, but I barely remember the others you mentioned. Watching or listening to those friday night fights with my dad ... the best.

Some of the best fights i have ever seen have been on barroom floors. He sounds quite a character Klyd

Now this is a topic I can sink my fangs into....

Fav of all time, no doubt Marciano, I was born in 84, so I didnt see anything in person obviously, but I watched all his boxing films on ESPN Classic and youtube... Im also a huge Aaron Pryor and Marvin Hagler fan big time.! My hometown hero Vinnie Pazienza was a great boxer to dont forget, he had some battles with Grag Haugen, but he def was past his prime and never as good as Jones JR however he(Paz) is in the Boxing hall of fame which is a great place to take a trip to in upstate NY, now-a-days I like some up and commers like Carlos Molina, Chris John, Adrian Broner, Andre Ward, Nonito Donaire and ofcourse the top dogs, Manny Pacquiao, Sergio Martinez, Saul Alvarez, blah blah blah... Boxing is my all-time favorite sport, with just football(NFL) ahead of it, I even boxed a bit when I was a kid, love the sport, just love it..

Glad to have you aboard the boxing threads Fat Ralph!

Thanks Nicky, I love talkin Boxing, I can talk Boxing for hrs seriously, all I do when Im with my buddies is talk Boxing/Football/Mob related topics and hiphop..

Haha we sound alike! Me too I love my sport and Mob stuff lol

LMMFAO.! I guess we do bud, also ya use the name of one of my fav mobsters, incidently my Fathers Uncle was a member of the Philly Mob(and no Im not bragging just sayin)Scarfo was stylish and blood thirsty he def had a Napolean complex...

HAHA yeah I was always fascinated by Scarfo, he's like a movie character or something. So your living in Providence, I know there's a mob presence there obviously.

Yessir, born and raised... the Don of the New England Mafia made his home here and also ran his operations right up the block from where I live..

Nice man. I'm sure you appreciate my display image? haha Cotto is one of my favourites!!!

Who was your uncle? Please don't write I can't say because thats getting old

He wasnt my uncle, he was my pops uncle, well he was my great Uncle I guess, Frank Narducci SR..

Re-watched an ESPN documentary about Joe Frazier and his son Marvis trying to keep their gym alive in Philly. Great show, awesome to see old Joe still strutting his stuff and Marvis came over as a real nice guy!

Arnold Schwarzenegger is my favorite bodybuilder all the time.

My two all time favorites are
Vinny Pazienza and Arturo Thunder Gatti

Big Gatti fan right here what a warrior. RIP

I'm in my mid 20s, so the best/most popular fighters growing up were Tyson, Holyfield, and Lennox Lewis. I remember being a kid and my brother in law bringing over the "box" so we could watch the infamous Tyson-Holyfield 2 fight. It's funny, i was never a "big" boxing fan, but at least there was minor interest back in those days. I couldn't tell you much about boxing anymore. Such is the state of pro boxing.

My all time favourite was Muhammad Ali a more recent fighter who's not been mentioned is Pernell Whitaker this guy was ridiculous .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjTHLPmfBCQ

Another of my favorites from that era was Kid Gavilan, the Cuban welterweight with the "bolo" punch.

I followed Vinny Paz more recently. Also Roy Jones Jr. until he basically collapsed.

Has anyone seen Nonito Donaire fight? I've seen his last 3 fights for a fly/bantum weight he has a ridiculous amount of kos anyone who hasn't seen him fight here's a short compilation of his Fly,Super fly fights. Since then he's became a Bantum/Super Bantum champ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVZB7Apu7B0

If Marciano and Frazier are getting mentioned then the greatest lightweight should Roberto Duran imo he was a much better fighter than Leonard Hearns or Hagler.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zKtj1o41nQ

All time favorite...Mr.Malik Abdul Aziz aka "Iron Mike" aka "Kid Dynamite"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v0vl6iTlC4

Fair enough Tyson wouldn't make my top 20 though

What can i say?!Mike is my favorite plus 90% of the world hates Tyson and i think thats one of the many reasons that makes me to like him more

George Forman... IMO he was the best boxer that ever put two feet inside a ring. The guy was awesome. Even knocked Smokin' Joe on his butt. George was very strong, too.

Ali was great ever see the movie requiem for a heavy weight Ali was in it under his Cassius clay name

I met Roberto Duran when they finish filming raging bull. He lived in the mayflower hotel. He would spar with joe Pesci a one time friend of mine.

In between fights duran was a fat bastard. He loved playing baseball. His group of guys had their own team. They would play guys that worked in that hotel in central park.

A great fighter was gene fullmer a great middle weight. He beat sugar ray Robinson and Carmen basselio great fighters. He had this crazy defense like dracular.he was middle wt champion.

I like a guy named Frankie upolido good fighter a friend of my father. My father had 100 amature fights they fough for watches back then. He beat the champion of the army one year.

But now I dig mixed martial arts. I should say I dig Brazilian jujitsu a great sport more like art then a sport especially using a gi.

Good movie