GUEST COLUMN
It takes certain special ingredients to obtain legendary status in boxing
What makes a boxing legend?
T THERE are several different criteria for determining who is labelled a legend of boxing. There have been some great boxers who simply haven’t reached legendary status even though they were respectable world champions. So just being a champion is not always an accurate indicator. It takes something special, unusual and, yes, legendary. Victories over elite champions from your era would seem a prerequisite. The ability to showcase superior skills against your highest levels of competition could be in there as well. Examples of overcoming a big betting favourite or coming from behind to win a fight that you were losing against a strong opponent could indicate legendary status. It could be something along the lines of running off a streak of successful title defences or holding on to a world championship for an unusually lengthy stretch, too. Or in the case of men like Arturo Gatti, it could be the fact that he was literally able to overcome so much pain and abuse, complete with cuts, bruising and knockdowns, to come back and still win in dramatic fashion time and time again on big stages.
When thinking of legendary boxers from my lifetime, I like to point to the great Sugar Ray Leonard as a perfect example. Ray and Muhammad Ali are as surefire legends as you can get. Ray, though, had less than 40 bouts as a professional, which in itself in many cases might disqualify someone from consideration, especially when you consider all-time greats like Sugar Ray Robinson, Archie Moore and Willie Pep ended up with numbers well into triple digits. But in such a short time, Leonard managed to reverse an important loss against Roberto Duran, snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in dramatic fashion against Thomas Hearns, and overcome tremendous odds for an unlikely victory over Marvin Hagler.
Ali is an example of a legend who may have actually been bigger than the sport for a time. His in-ring exploits, combined with his out-of-the-ring issues and how he dealt with them, puts him in another stratosphere of legends. Most people subconsciously think of legends as older, retired fighters from earlier eras, but Floyd Mayweather has certainly reached legendary status, as has Manny Pacquiao. Much has been made of men who moved up in weight and defeated champions who were naturally far bigger than them.
Today we do, in fact, have several boxers who could possibly end up as legends. Look at Deontay Wilder. Now, many people point to his lack of technical skills, but the fact is that he is scoring knockouts as the heavyweight champion of the world. He’s tallied seven consecutive title defences and has knocked out 39 of his 40 opponents. If he were to defend a few more times and defeat Anthony Joshua in impressive fashion in a mega-fight, I could see him being viewed as a legend. Gennady Golovkin has the record, skills, longevity and streak of successful title defences to eventually go down as a legend. Also, if Vasyl Lomachenko keeps on his current path with continued success, it’ll be a no-brainer to label him as a legend. Lomachenko is on his way, but he needs to overcome someone along the lines of a Mikey Garcia to solidify his place among history’s best.
I wouldn’t necessarily say that to become a true legend you would need to have more going for you than just what you did in the ring. Admittedly, men like Ali, Jack Johnson, Joe Louis and Leonard are prime examples of guys who had things other than what went on just in the course of their fights that enhanced their visibility, and did in fact add to their greatness. At the same time, though, history certainly shows that it is not a prerequisite to obtain legendary status. Rocky Marciano reached legendary status simply by winning all of his fights. Another great undefeated champion, Joe Calzaghe, did the same. And Andre Ward will likely be seen as a legend because of his career-long undefeated record.