Here’s the fighting ability of every U.S. president in one chart

Historians love to argue over which president was the best. Every few years CSPAN releases a survey of presidential leadership in which they ask academics to rank the presidents in such qualities as public persuasion, crisis leadership, moral authority, and administrative skills.

But we think a much more important quality was left off that list: a president’s fighting ability. How well could a president beat up another president? If there were, say, a tournament in which all 44 of them fought each other one-on-one, who would win?

It’s not as ridiculous a concept as you think. The ancient Greeks thought that athletic ability was a measure of greatness; that’s why they hosted the Olympics and made celebrities out of the winners. JFK even launched federal physical education standards as a way to preserve America’s global pre-eminence against the USSR because he thought school children were too out-of-shape (he wouldn’t be too happy with the 21st century, that’s for sure).

To settle the issue once and for all, we looked at the fighting abilities of all 44 presidents and charted them exhaustively. Their skills are based on height, weight, military experience, and special abilities (boxing training, pain tolerance, psychological manipulation, etc.)

See the breakdown for yourself below: