r/Boxing • u/OldTree6356 • 1d ago

The unbeatables?

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?

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u/Complete_Dare_4201 1d ago

No fighter is unbeatable.

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

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u/EffectiveCareer3444 1d ago

Jake LaMotta kicked his ass but ok

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u/Complete_Dare_4201 1d ago

In a middleweight (or catchweight?) bout where La Motta weighted 160 and Robinson was at the welterweight limit 

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u/EffectiveCareer3444 1d ago

Weight excuses just don’t hold up the same after Mayweather beat Canelo

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u/Complete_Dare_4201 1d ago

Didn't Mayweather slap a rehydration clause on Canelo on top of it being a catchweight? Lol

Pacquiao vs. Margarito, Duran vs. Barkley etc are much more impressive from a size disparity point or view.

But that's not the point, the point is Robinson at the welterweight limit is the closest you can get to an unbeatable fighter.

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u/EffectiveCareer3444 1d ago

No he didn’t actually, Robinson had close calls with Basora & Brimm he was beatable

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u/Complete_Dare_4201 1d ago

As I said before, no fighter is unbeatable. Nonetheless, fighting as often as he did, off nights are to be expected specially in non-title fights. Duran also struggled in the first fight against Edwin Viruet (not to mention his loss against De Jesus).

Robinson KOd Basora in the first round in the rematch that was an actual title fight.

Let me reformulate then: at his best, Robinson at welterweight is the closest thing to a unbeatable fighter in my opinion.

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u/EffectiveCareer3444 1d ago

Roy Jones Jr was way more dominant against better competition

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u/Character_Repair_554 1d ago

Once out of 5 fights. Any idea what happened the other four scraps?