Without a Friday Night Fights this week to focus my attention on the current state of the game, my mind wanders through boxing history. I have been thinking about those fighters who I consider the greatest of all-time. In the past I have written about my all time pound-for-pound list, but this is different. Here I will write about fighters who came to be recognized (at least by me) as the greatest in the history of their division, and what they accomplished to earn that title.

I will not, for the most part, argue my selections' cases against their historical near-peers. That I will be happy to do in one of my weekly chat rooms. So for those of you who believe that Joe Louis was the greatest heavyweight ever, or that Stanley Ketchel should be ranked ahead of Harry Greb at middleweight, join us any Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET, and we'll go at it. Until then:

Heavyweight: Muhammad Ali -- The only heavyweight champion in history to beat more than one other great heavyweight in that heavyweight's prime -- and Ali did this several times when he was no longer at his best! Even if you take Joe Frazier and George Foreman and even Sonny Liston off his resume, Ali still has an argument for greatest heavyweight ever. He beat Floyd Patterson twice, Jerry Quarry twice, Ron Lyle, Ernie Shavers, Jimmy Ellis, Doug Jones, Ernie Terrell, Joe Bugner twice, Oscar Bonavena, and George Chuvalo twice. And this isn't even name dropping because I left out old Archie Moore and Zora Folley, and washed up Cleveland Williams and too many others to mention here. Between 1964 and 1967, when Ali was in his prime, he was the untouchable. Between 1970 and 1978, a faded Ali dominated the most talent-rich heavyweight landscape in history.

Light heavyweight: Ezzard Charles -- He never fought for and therefore never won the light heavyweight title, but he was the greatest 175-pounder in history. Between his loss to Kid Tunero in 1942 and his loss to Jersey Joe Walcott in 1951, Charles was peerless in his division. He lost three fights during that time. Two of those losses came in his only two fights in 1943, when he was enlisted. He took them on very short notice. One was to Jimmy Bivins, the "interim" heavyweight champion while Joe Louis was in the army and the other was to Lloyd Marshall, one of the best middleweights of the day. When he had time to prepare, Charles beat them both in rematches. He beat Marshall twice, knocking him out once, and Bivins three times, knocking him out once, too. His only other loss during the eight years in question came to awkward and ranked heavyweight Elmer Ray, who Charles also knocked out in a rematch. Charles' victims in his prime included a young Jose Basora, a prime Charley Burley twice, a young Joey Maxim twice and a prime Joey Maxim twice (that's four times all together), Gus Lesnevich, Jersey Joe Walcott twice and an old Joe Louis. Even after he started slipping and Walcott beat him, Charles still had enough left to beat Rex Lane more than Lane beat him, take care of Maxim and Bivins again, and give a prime Rocky Marciano all he could handle in two fights. By the way, for those who would argue Archie Moore as the greatest light heavy ever, Charles beat him in his prime, three out of three, and even knocked him out the last time they fought for good measure.

Middleweight: Harry Greb -- This guy had the most impressive record in the history of boxing. Greb fared better against Jack Dempsey's opponents than Dempsey himself did. Greb in fact called out Dempsey throughout his career, but the fight never happened. Between 1917 and 1926, Greb fought and beat almost every good, near great, great, and all-time great between welterweight and heavyweight. He fought all of the black fighters who everyone else avoided at the time. He whipped Gene Tunney and Mickey Walker and Tommy and Mike Gibbons and Jack Dillon and Tommy Loughran and Maxie Rosenbloom and the fat heavyweight who had a winning record against a young Dempsey (Willie Meehan) and Johnny Wilson and on and on and on. At his best he almost never lost and he fought the best practically every other week. Imagine if there was a fighter around today who fought Oscar De la Hoya in early-January, and by the end of March had also taken on Felix Trinidad, Shane Mosley, Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright. And beat them all. Just the sickest record you ever want to see.

Welterweight: Ray Robinson -- There is no rational argument for anyone else, even really in a pound-for-pound sense, let alone at welter. A prime Kid Gavilan, himself an all-time 147-pounder, was beaten twice. Only a prime Jake LaMotta, who lost five out of six to Robinson, was able to beat the welterweight Sugar Ray even once. LaMotta outweighed Ray by about 15 pounds. A case can also be made for Robinson at middleweight, but we can get into that in the chat room.

Lightweight: Pernell Whitaker -- Won as high a percentage of rounds against top-shelf opponents as any lightweight in history. At 135 Azumah Nelson, Freddie Pendelton and even Roger Mayweather (who ran into a pre-prime Whitaker) had no shot. Whitaker's whipping of Julio Cesar Chavez took place at welter, but only because after Pernell shut out Jose Luis Ramirez and Greg Haugen and unified the lightweight titles, Chavez' people avoided him. Whitaker had to jump up to welter and take the linear claim and WBC belt from Buddy McGirt to force Chavez' hand. As an old man he outboxed a prime Oscar De La Hoya, but lost a disputed decision. I admit Whitaker is my personal favorite, and it is possible to argue either Roberto Duran, Benny Leonard or Joe Gans for the top slot here. It is razor close between those three greats and Whitaker, but my nod goes to the guy who went undefeated on my scorecards until what was essentially the last fight of his career. That fight came against a prime Felix Trinidad. Whitaker fought the last six rounds with a fractured jaw. Still, he went the distance and gave Trinidad the toughest fight of his career up until that point. If a prime, powerpunching welterweight Tito couldn't knockout an over-the-hill, drug abusing, blown-up-lightweight-fighting-at-welterweight, slow, 35-year-old Whitaker, then Duran better outpoint the prime, in shape, impossible to hit, fast-as-lightning 28-year-old Sweet Pea, because one thing seems a good bet: no one was going to knock Pernell Whitaker out. Hard to imagine anyone outboxing him either, isn't it?

Featherweight: Willie Pep -- Watching tape of this guy is like watching Magic Johnson's no-look pass, or Ozzie Smith's acrobatic glove work. Pep's sophisticated skill was heightened to the point where the subtle became the spectacular. He was simply impossible to hit, despite always seeming to be in punching range. Pep ties with Pernell Whitaker for greatest defensive boxer among the upper-echelon all-time greats. Willie almost never lost in his prime, despite consistently fighting the best featherweights of his era. His losses to Sandy Saddler came after a plane crash that didn't end Pep's career, but left him not quite at the same level he had attained before the crash. Still, no longer at his best, he managed to beat Saddler one out of three.

Bantamweight: Eder Jofre -- Only career losses in 78 fights were to a prime, all-time great Fighting Harada, and those losses were close and came at a time when Jofre struggled mightily to make the 118-pound limit. By the time Harada beat him, Jofre had made seven title defenses, was considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world by those in the know, and was even discussed as a potential challenger for Sugar Ray Robinson's mythical all-time pound-for-pound title. He retired after the Harada fights. Three years later he came back as a featherweight and won 25 straight fights. One of those wins came against Jose Legra, the featherweight champion of the world. That's right, Jofre was also featherweight champ. Jofre has a cult following who believe that he was the best ever, at any weight, and they can at least make an interesting case.

Flyweight: Jimmy Wilde -- I know these weights are ridiculously low and it is often difficult to gauge the quality of fighters in these divisions, but for what it's worth, this guy was and remains the standard. He lost three out of 145 total fights. He beat all of the best fighters in his weight class despite giving up pounds (he was small even for a flyweight). In a division and era where knockout percentages were very low, his was very high. Imagine if Ricardo Lopez did what he has done, but without gaining weight, and did it against Mark Johnson and all of the top guys at flyweight instead of junior flyweight and strawweight. For the real boxing freaks, we can argue Wilde versus Pancho Villa versus Miguel Canto in the chat room. But not for too long.

Max Kellerman is a studio analyst for ESPN2's Friday Night Fights.