7/21/21
Okay, Sensei, [I'm using a cut-rate program with no spell check making for maximum conjoined vowel inversion.] I won't spell any of the non-Anglo names correctly and I'm doing this off of the top of an oft concussed head. So, please, treat men better than these fellows were treated by their colleagues. Please note that I am beginning to lose the names of old time fighters of the lighter ranks. So this will skew towards heavyweight.
I break toughness down into three parts:
-1. Work rate, defined by tenacity, wind, endurance, the ability to keep attacking when most mortals would be unable to breathe, and the ability to endure body punches.
-2. Heart, the drive to continue fighting against all odds, despite little or no hope of victory and against much bigger and harder hitting men.
-3. Chin, the ability to take shots to the head and face that would render most men unconscious.
I will rate each fighter from 0 [normal human] to 5 [superhuman] with each point actually representing ten-times the normal human ability. So, a dude with a 5 chin, can take fifty times more impact than you or me.
Consider work rate. The average fit man, who can, let's say, hike five miles or run a mile. That guy is generally good for a 2 minute round of boxing at amateur level and is then unable to continue. Sam Mcvay and Joe Jennette did 50 3-minute rounds at pro level.
Doo Ku Kim pushed himself so hard in the ring that he died. Must people do not have the will power to kill a sedentary body, let alone work and batter a prime athletic body to death.
We are talking about super men.
Fighter.............................................. Work Heart Chin Total
Doo Ku Kim.........................................3........5.......4.......12
Mohamed Ali........................................1........5.......5.......11
Guido Antifermo...................................3........5.......4.......12
Marvin Hagler.......................................5........5.......5.......15
Tony Zale the Man of Steel..................4.........5.......4......14
Sam McVey..........................................5.........5.......3......13
Joe Jennette.........................................5.........5.......3......13
Kid Gavilen the Cuban Hawk................4.........5.......5......14
Chuck Wepner the Bayonne Bleeder.....2........5.......3......10
Randal “Tex” Cob...................................2.........5.......4.....11
Troy Dorsey............................................4.........5.......3.....12
Rocky Marciano......................................5........5.......5.....15
Joe Frazier..............................................5........5.......3......13
George Chevalo.....................................2........5........5.....12
Joe Gans................................................5........5........4.....14
Knox Brown, Journeyman......................1.........5........5.....11
There are many more. But these are the men that come to mind without research.
Note that Joe Gans was only stopped by bigger men twice in over 100 fights and only after he had tuberculosis and was dying.
The top five are:
-1. Marciano, over Hagler because he was hit by bigger men
-2. Hagler
-3. Gavilen for not being stopped
-4. Gans for work rate over
-5. Zale
What...No Stan Ketchel?
I wonder where Sonny Liston would rank?