Oh ****, don't say that around combatdeboxeo or his fifty alts. Ali's strength is very underrated, one of the strongest heavy's full stop.
Primo Carnera would have cleaned out most of todays top 10. Sam Langford would have cleaned out all of it.
From the Ring Mag's top 10, Primo might beat Adamek, Hepatitis Chagaev, Dimitrenko, Boystov, Helenius & Arreola. Really? What weight would you have Langford fight at in todays Heavyweight division? I thought he was meant to be "fat" when above 200lbs? :think
Jack Sharkey, Carnera, and Baer are pretty undervalued in terms of ability. Reckon Schmeling would be treated the same without Louis under his belt. Barbados Joe Walcott KO Thomas Hearns in brutal fashion. Larry Holmes was involved in his own fair share of so-so incidents regarding matchmaking and rarely gets slated for it. Reckon he cherrypicked inexperienced Cooney and Frazier. And obviously the belts business. Langford would have destroyed Johnson in his 168lb heavy prime. Dempsey would have smashed Wills. Greb could beat a post 1920 Dempsey. Featherweight is the most overrated division. I'd have to say that for all the praise it gets i've seen better fights and fighters in almost every division bar a couple names.
Swarmers top heavyweights of the era head to head? 1. Langford 2. Johnson 3. Greb 4. Dempsey 5. Wills
I'd do it by decade. Langford, Johnson, etc would be at his tops in 1899-1909 for example 1909-1919 would have Dempsey, Greb, Wills, Brennan, Smith etc. I don't really think of it like a straight ranking 'h2h', never makes much sense to me when every opponent has a distinct set of stylistic and physical challenges that are different for every fighter.