[Turban Capote]

Originally Posted by bradlee180

Any fighters in last 20 years to make the Top 5 of All-Time in their division?
Since 1988 then.

Julio Cesar Chavez.
Bernard Hopkins. The prime Hopkins circa 1995 to 2000 could’ve fought with any middleweight in history.
Pernell Whitaker.
Maybe Azumah Nelson.
Joe Calzaghe at 168, but the class hasn’t been around that long and has a short list of champions to pick from.
Holyfield at Cruiserweight, (last fight at cruiser was in ’88), but there’s not much to pick from at cruiser with such a short history.
Roy Jones?
Ricardo “El Matador” Mayorga.

Marvin Hagler just misses this list as he retired in ‘87, not ‘88.
Mike Tyson’s prime was ’86, ‘87, and ‘88, but he’s not an All-Time Top 5 Heavyweight. I’d still put Tyson in the Top 10 of All-Time though at #10 based on his accomplishments of unifying the titles, becoming the youngest Heavyweight champ in history, and for being a dominant champion for a few years.

A problem is so many (not all) of these intermediate junior/super weight classes have short histories, so making Top 5 All-Time in those junior/super classes isn’t that difficult.

Another difficulty is top fighters that have jumped too readily from weight class to weight class like James Toney. Toney could fight with anybody, but he didn’t stick to his weight class the way Bernard Hopkins did establishing a legacy.
I don’t think floyd mayweather makes the Top 5 of All-Time cut, not even at super-featherweight 130 lbs where he was at his best. Who’d he beat at 130 other than the late Diego Corrales? Floyd’s top talent, but so far he’s avoided the tough opposition that could’ve made him a legend.

Not Trinidad as a Top 5 Welterweight of All-Time though.
Trinidad was good, but many past welterweight champs would’ve taken out Tito.
Sugar Ray Robinson, Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, basically harmonica’s top 20 list on page 1 of this thread.
I liked watching Tito, but he was too 1-dimensional.

I know where you're coming from. I just see it a different way. I just think it's a different game today and the game has been lowered in some aspects but higher in different aspects. I think with the boxers of the past twenty years mental focus and shortsightedness towards money took a nosedive, but as far as technical skills like defense and optimization of offense and strategy and playing rounds, it has gotten better. I would give credit to more of the current boxers than you in regards of them beating some boxers in the past.