Columnist Dean Juipe: Ring’s all-time rankings are a loss cause

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, April 22, 2003 | 9:36 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

The difference between the all-time greatest fighters as selected by The Ring magazine and my own top 10 is that my guys almost always won.

The list compiled by the editors at The Ring is laden with old-timers and is very forgiving to those who fought frequently but didn't always win. The magazine -- which has its top 80 fighters of all time listed in its 2003 Boxing Almanac -- is tolerant, shall we say, of men who competed at a high level yet sometimes needed help getting back to the dressing room.

So I decided to do my own top 10, as any boxing fan might. But with all due respect to the old fighters, I put a premium on glistening records and superior athleticism and I wound up with a list far different from the one presented by The Ring.

For instance, The Ring has Sugar Ray Robinson at No. 1 in spite of 19 losses and six draws, and Henry Armstrong at No. 2 in spite of 21 losses and nine draws. Overall, Robinson and Armstrong were certainly great fighters yet I bypassed both in making my own top 10.

I like Rocky Marciano at No. 1. He won all 49 of his professional fights and is the only heavyweight champion in history to retire undefeated.

Perhaps the talent pool of heavyweights wasn't great during Marciano's 1947-55 career, yet he faced everyone he could and he beat 'em all. That's good enough for me.

The Ring has two men in its top 10 that I barely considered and I question the legitimacy of honoring them in such an elite manner. It has Benny Leonard, a lightweight from the 1920s who went 85-5-1, at No. 8, and it has Pernell Whitaker, a welterweight who lost to Oscar De La Hoya, at No. 10.

Maybe I'm shorting Leonard because he seems so dated, but I just don't see the logic of having Whitaker -- who also lost three other fights -- anywhere near the top 10. Shoot, have De La Hoya in the top 10 if you're going to have Whitaker.

The highest ranked active fighter for The Ring is Roy Jones Jr. at No. 44 -- albeit before he moved to heavyweight and added to his championships -- and I've got him all the way up at No. 4. I also have two fighters who recently retired, Ricardo Lopez and Felix Trinidad, in my top 10 even though The Ring has them well back at Nos. 70 and 51, respectively.

Simply put, I'm not swayed by the old press clippings The Ring may have relied on and I put a lot of credence in the belief that athletes of a more modern era have many more physical advantages and assets than their predecessors. Along those lines, I'd take De La Hoya over Robinson if they were fighting each other and both had the magical ability to be 25 at the time of the bout.

One thing about it: Rating fighters like this creates discussion, if not controversy. Very few fans would be in wholesale agreement with The Ring's picks and just as few would be in harmony with mine.

But I will say I didn't like the fact The Ring not only had two men with a combined 40 losses at the top of its list, it had two others in its top 10 with double-figure defeats and 10 others between Nos. 11 and 80 who lost at least 24 times apiece.

It went so far as to list a lightweight from the '50s and '60s, Joe Brown, at No. 48 in spite of the fact he failed to win 57 of his 161 fights. I just don't think a fighter can lose that often and be called one of the greatest of all time, and in Brown's case I wouldn't have him on my list unless it stretched to 1,000 or something.

For the record, here's The Ring's list from 1 to 10 and each man's record: Sugar Ray Robinson, 175-19-6; Henry Armstrong, 150-21-9; Muhammad Ali, 56-5; Joe Louis, 68-3; Roberto Duran, 104-16; Willie Pep, 229-11-1; Harry Greb, 115-8-3; Benny Leonard, 85-5-1; Sugar Ray Leonard, 36-3-1; and Pernell Whitaker, 40-4-1.

Here's mine: Rocky Marciano, 49-0; Joe Louis, 68-3; Ricardo Lopez, 50-0-1; Roy Jones Jr., 48-1; Gene Tunney, 65-1-1; Felix Trinidad, 41-1; Michael Spinks, 31-1; Muhammad Ali, 56-5; Sugar Ray Leonard, 36-3-1; and Julio Cesar Chavez, 104-5-2.

My guys didn't routinely feast on patsies and they almost always fought the best available competition. They were -- and, in Jones' case, are -- solid fighters with superb credentials.

Better yet, when it was time for the ring announcer to do his thing, they were the ones with their hands raised in victory.