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Yes. boxing if a martial art.
And for all of the stuff you read about one inch punches and so on... the most efficient and hardest strike known is a overhand punch.
Calling Sugar Ray the greatest is of course subjective. And it is also relative. In a Karate fight, Bruce Lee would have wiped the floor with him, but if all things were equalised... Sugar Ray was the greatest fighter (although not the greatest boxer in my opinion - that is Jack Johnson) that has lived in recent history.
If Bruce Lee and Sugar Ray had the same training, Sugar Ray would have whipped him. If they had both been raised as boxers, Bruce Lee couldnt have come close to him. If they had both been raised as Karate fighters, Sugar Ray would have been the greatest karate fighter the world has ever known.
And this, of course, is my subjective opinion.
I say that Sugar Ray was the greatest fighter ever, but not the greatest boxer - because I believe that he had more versatility. Jack Johnson had a cleverness and skill that was suited to boxing. He was not really a warrior and did not have a real killer instinct, and wouldnt have been AS good in a more "no holds barred" martial art - but within the sweet science, there was no one close to the domination he held within his era... he was literally almost impossible to hit in a boxing ring.
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As for your Roycie Gracie's... again it is all subjective. If he and a 22 year old Mike Tyson went into a cellar, I know who I would bet my house on coming back out on his feet. Every one else can only make their judgment.
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"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."
The Gospel of Thomas
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