Four-time super middleweight champion, Carl Froch, has listed three names he believes to be boxing’s greatest ever.
Froch was recently announced as one of the latest inductees into Boxing’s Hall of Fame, and will be in good company when inducted.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Froch on Fighting, the fighter-turned-pundit answered a fan who asked for his opinion on the greatest fighter of all time.
“Sugar Ray Robinson – what a fighter. When you go back to the old school of fifteen rounds, small gloves, the referee lets them carry on even if somebody’s being held up by the bottom rope.
You can still get your head smashed in and the referee would just leave it till you’re on the floor … ruthless … it’s hard to compare a fighter from that era to the current greats.”
Robinson went a quite incredible 91 fights unbeaten over eight years, and retired with a recorded 174 wins from 201 bouts. Different times indeed.
Heralded as the pound-for-pound number one in the history of the sport by many fans as well as Muhammad Ali, Robinson’s influence was vast outside the ropes, too.
Moving onto modern-day greats, Froch named the two fighters he admires most, beginning with Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather.
“The current greats who I think are probably the best are Floyd Mayweather. He’s one of the best, if not the best, of all time. Unbeaten in 50 fights.
Mayweather, as with Robinson, changed the sport in many ways, and his 50-0 professional record includes names like Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya and Saul ‘Canelo’ Álvarez.
Finally, ‘The Cobra’ classed Roy Jones Jr as his number one, although admitted it was hard to settle on just one name, especially crossing over different eras in boxing.
But Roy Jones Jr, the way he used to fight – speed, accuracy. I think he’s the only fighter ever to not get hit with a punch for a whole round.
He’s just unbelievably skilful, talented, and the biggest attribute he had was the speed. When he had that speed early on his career, I think he was untouchable. He was such a dangerous super middleweight, dangerous light heavyweight – just phenomenal.”
For me it’s probably gonna be Roy Jones Jr over Floyd Mayweather, and then if you go back to the early years and Sugar Ray Robinson, people like him, really, really close second or maybe edging in front.”
The four weight world champ is the only boxer in history to start his career at super welterweight and go on to win a strap in the heavies.
Three huge names that are hard to argue with – but did any of them do 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium?