who would you swap him out for in my list? maybe frazier or holyfield, but in my opinion they are superior in H2H and resume
I'm not sure what that has to do with what I said. Like I said, Lennox Lewis at #3 seems to high to me. smitty would have Ali in the top 3 if he bumped Lewis down (or Louis or Dempsey).
I don't care too much, tbh. If someone had Ali as #5 it would be okay with me too. Of course, Ali at #1 is a great shout too. I can't fault smitty's list much at all. I feel Lennox is a little overrated, just like you think Dempsey is overrated. Then again, Lewis was a great fighter and perhaps I should give him more credit.
I like this list, it's ballsy! I don't agree with all of it but I really like your top 5. I like that V. Klitschko is on it. I'd have to seperate Foreman and Patterson a little more as I believe Foreman was superior to Liston.
At age 30 he was 28-0 (22) overall, 10-0 (7) in World Title fights, and 4-0 (1) vs. Hall of Famers (Qawi x2, Foreman, and Holmes). He had wins over these world champs- Booze (WBO), Qawi x2, Ocasio, Parkey, DeLeon, Thomas, Dokes, Douglas (Lineal HW), Foreman (former lineal HW), and Holmes (former lineal HW). All this talk of how hot and cold he was makes me laugh. He was hot and cold after age 30... but during the first 8 years of his career he did all of the things I mentioned above and more.
He and Tyson, I usually keep pretty close together with Evander in front most times. Holyfield's got the H2H wins and better resume; Tyson cleaned out his division in the dominant fashion Evander probably never could. One could argue that's due to Holyfield's 1990s opposition, but I honestly think Mike would chop Bowe apart.