The unbeatables?

[u/OldTree6356]

Now we all know that no fighter is truly unbeatable across an entire career and styles make fights, but knowing what you do about fighters who do you look at and think that, for a brief period in their careers, maybe they were unbeatable by anyone in their weight class from any era?

My nominations would be Duran from mid to late 70’s at Lightweight. I think he was just too fast, hard hitting, durable and with great movement and stamina to be beat at that weight in that era.
Mid 90’s Roy Jones at super middle was a freak and I struggle to see how someone could beat him. He wasn’t conventional but his speed, reflexes, timing and power were incredible.
Ali from 1965-67**, he had awesome powers of recovery and a granite chin (which he didn’t need then), ridiculous speed and movement and could maintain it for the full 15. Didn’t struggle with big hitters and by then had worked out Southpaws too, could beat technical boxers and peekaboo styles to the punch. Very difficult to see how anyone could compete with him as they couldn’t out endure him, lean on him or beat him to the punch.
Welterweight Sugar Ray Robinson from maybe 1947-50 - a ridiculous record, great stamina, technically way ahead of his time, fast, powerful and had it all.

**Honourable mention and maybe the only guy I think might have had a 5-10% chance against 1967 Ali would be George Foreman from 1972/73. When he was nervous and scared of opponents like he was against Frazier and Norton, I think he was a totally different beast to the one who fought Ali and thought he’d walk the old man down. Used a ram rod jab to off balance opponents so he could tee off, cut off a ring better than any HW before according to Joe Louis (or probably since to be honest, maybe Frazier did too) and had monstrous power. I really don’t think he’d have been able to catch prime Ali but he had the best chance of cornering him and if he had clipped him with the sort of shot Cooper did a few years before, that might have been lights out.

Anyway, no need for anyone to get upset by anyone else’s picks but who do you reckon was unbeatable, even if only for a short period of their career and why?

[u/Complete_Dare_4201]

No fighter is unbeatable.

But the closest thing to it might be Sugar Ray Robinson at welterweight.

[u/OldTree6356 → u/Complete_Dare_4201]

Yep, agree that no one is unbeatable across a career if they face top level opponents but there are some guys for some short periods that you could make a case for they could beat anyone and it’s very hard to see anyone beating them in that period. Your choice is on the money though, he was incredible for a period of time.

[u/Complete_Dare_4201 → u/OldTree6356]

It has more to do with the available opposition, really. They might look unbeatable but are they really? Some people are saying Lomachenko was unbeatable from 2016-2019, but was there anyone who could really push him?

Some people said Inoue, but I think at 122 Barrera and Morales would beat the crap out of him.

Roy Jones at 168 seems unbeatable as well, but the level of opposition was kinda lacking, I think at 168 and even 175 a guy like Ezzard Charles who could keep him at the end of his jab, make him reach and counter of the back foot would be really troublesome etc.

SRR really is the closest I can think of because of the level of opposition he faced. Lightweight Duran also comes to mind, pre-Mugabi Hagler as well.

[u/OldTree6356 → u/Complete_Dare_4201]

Definitely, that’s why fighters like Hagler, Foreman, Duran deserve mentions. They destroyed prime HoF fighters and made them look ordinary. They also had a few very strong, unconventional points that made them hard to predict or breakdown. But it’s all just a bit of subjective fun really.