Why does Evander get depicted as a runner up to the greatest HW of recent times after lennox lewis, rather than the greatest cruiserweight of all time, that was so good he came close to taking Lennoxes spot as the best HW of an era? What other cruiser weights are better than Holyfield or are in the mix? Also what about older heavyweights that were under 200lbs where do they fit in?
Evander is unequivocally the greatest cruiser since the division was created, but there have been greater fighters of similar weight before his time.
Yes, Holyfield is clearly the greatest cruiser ever. I thought Stevie Cunningham had the potential to possibly make a run at challenging Holyfield. He had a great start with strong wins over Kelvin Davis, Sebastian Rothman, and Guillermo Jones, but once he won the title his career stalled due to Don King's mismanagement and bad luck. Cruiserweight has had some good names and talent during Cunningham's run but U.S.S. was ducked by most of the other 'name' fighters and by the time he got what should have been his defining fight with Adamek his skills had started to slip from only fighting once a year. If Juan Carlos Gomez has stuck around at cruiser and he had maintained his discipline (unlikely) he could have made a damn good claim to being number 1 as well. People forget that he was a killer at that weight. They only remember him as the bored, chinny heavyweight he turned into.
The way Cunningham and his career is portrayed is very inaccurate. He's overrated and the way he was given rematches when he lost but refused to do the same when he won close or controversial fights pisses me off tbh. - Wins close fight against Jones and doesnt give him a rematch - Loses to Wlod, is given a rematch that he wins and doesnt give Wlod a rubbermatch - Loses to Adamek who is willing to give him a rematch but no US TV wants it so Adamek moves up - fights Ross for vacant belt, is dropped and losing the fight when it is stopped because USS thumbed Ross in the eye causing a cut and swelling so he wins by a bull**** TKO. No rematch for Ross - Loses to YPH, cries about the stoppage being unfair, gets a rematch and clearly loses.
Holyfield is the only great cruiserweight. There's a problem with the cruiser division. Most fighters with potential to be great at that division inevitably end up fighting at heavyweight. Even in the age of 'super-heavy' dominance, we have 'cruisers' like Byrd, Chambers, Haye and Adamek choosing to fight at HW, and then pretty much have risen to the top, barring the Klitschko brothers who have kept them off the very top.
how do you think toney and holyfield would have got on around the time when holy was cruiser champ ??
Holyfield's,without doubt,the best cruiser since the division has existed. Out of all the sub 200 lb men,the greatest of all would be either Evander or Rocky Marciano,probably. Unless,of course,we take Joe Louis who weighed just under 200 for some of his earlier bouts.
I disagree. Louis had 27 title fights. He was under 200 pounds for 5 of them. He was over 200 lbs in more than half his bouts.