The weakest lineal heavyweight champ

Agree.

As for Briggs, let's see the facts - KO'd in 3rd by Darrol Wilson, dominated by Lennox Lewis and Jameel McCline.

Drew with Botha (it was clear win for Botha, i scored the fight 98-90 for Botha).

Top wins are - highly controversial win over 48 y.o. Foreman, KO 7 over totally shot 44 y.o. Mercer (while Mercer was clearly ahead after 6 rds), and KO12 at 2:59 over Lyakhovich (who was ahead on cards).

So his resume isn't that good.

 

I don’t agree actually.

I am certainly very sceptical about Rahman as a fighter, but I would not categorise him as a one hit wonder.

He went on to hold the WBC title later in his career for a start.

 

Again I am very sceptical of him as a champion, but he did win the lineal title then later go on to win the WBO title. This means he was not a fighter with only one good fight.

 

Say what you will about Rahman, but I dont think I ever saw Lewis get taking out like that, and that even includes the McCall ko over Lewis, When I saw Lewis get hit and go down, I felt the fight was over, which it was of couse.

Lewis fix things in the rematch, but that ko was amazing.

 

I'm going to go with Briggs.

As mentioned, at least Leon had a close but legimate win over the severly faded but still active Ali. Ali was at least coming off a solid win over a peaking Earnie Shavers.

Briggs won the lineal title by controversial decision over a 48 year old Foreman who despite his lineal claim was no longer even relevant as Evander had emerged the recognized top dog in the division. At least Leon beat the recognized number one Heavyweight in the World for his lineal claim. Foreman wasn't even ranked by the Ring or any major bodies anymore.


The behind the scenes controversies regarding Foreman/Briggs.

Wallace Matthews, boxing writer for the New York Post wrote, “Shannon Briggs beat George Foreman because Larry Hazzard wanted him to....nothing happens in a New Jersey boxing ring unless Larry Hazzard wants it to.” Azoff and Wald claimed that Hazzard had a "vendetta" against them since Foreman's fight with [url]Lou Savarese[/url] the previous April. Reportedly, Hazzard had to be pulled off Azoff in the ring after the fight. According to Matthews, “to avoid similar unpleasantness, Hazzard just canceled the rules meeting - coincidentally, the one time when a fighter’s camp gets the chance to protest the choice of officials.”
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement dismissed the complaint by Azoff and Wald. Division director Frank Catania said there was no merit to their claims. "They made a lot of allegations, but they can't substantiate any part of it," Cantania said. "Unless they can give me something more specific and in more detail, there's nothing left to look into."
Hazzard acknowledged the widespread criticism of the decision in a 1998 interview. Referring to his selection of judges, Hazzard admitted that he "would've done it differently" if he had the opportunity to make the selection again. He explained that he had wanted to give the relatively inexperienced judges Larry Layton and Calvin Claxton "some exposure" by assigning them to work a high-profile fight. Hazzard said: "If I had it to do over again, forget it. I'd just wait [to give them exposure]....I guess it was one of those fights most people thought Foreman would win and a fight most people didn't think would be that difficult to score. And heavyweights are easier to score. This ain't gonna be a big deal. Boy, was it a big deal! Everyone thought Foreman had won."

 

Shannon Briggs
Jess Willard

 

-Eh, I guess there was a few minutes Vitali was scared Briggs was going to die on his feet from the beating he was taking.

-Briggs has that one decent win over Liakhovich. A come from behind KO in the final second of an ugly stinker. I know Liakhovich has that one inpsired performance agaisnt Brewster, but he never resembled that fighter before that night or again, and has been used as a gate keeper ever since so its hard to credit Briggs too much for his miracle last second win against the guy.

 

:good
Anyone who knocks out sharkey was a good fighter.

I don't think Ali or Foreman were regarded as the best heavyweights in the world when they lost to SPinks and Briggs.

I also don't rate the Larry Holmes that Michael Spinks beat as the best heavyweight in the world at that time.

 

I'd say Leon Spinks is the correct answer. But I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Buster Douglas. He accomplished less than just about any other future heavyweight champion prior to fighting for the title, held the title for less time than just about any other reigning heavyweight champion, and went on to accomplish less than just about any other former heavyweight champion after losing it.

At least Briggs continued to make noise in the division, winning a version of the title a second time and fighting for the title a third time in a brave effort.

 

I was just wondering.

Was Sharkey the best heavy in the world when he took on Carnera?

He fought a draw with the middleweight Walker in 1931. The majority didn't agree with the decision over Schmeling in 1932 which gave him the title.
His next two fights after the Carnera fight in 1933 were losses.

Sharkey at his best wasn't all that much for a champion, and he was probably way past it in 1933.

 

I disagree with your point about Ali. I think Ali was still considered the best heavyweight in the world coming into the fight with Spinks. The heavyweight golden era was drawing to a close and Ali settled accounts with pretty much all of his rivals. Holmes wasn't on anybody's radar until he beat both Shavers and Norton, and wasn't widely seen as the best heavyweight in the world until after Ali lost to Spinks.

I think it's a bit more ambiguous, but I do think Holmes was still widely considered the best heavyweight in the world heading into his fight with Michael Spinks. Tyson wasn't seen as a serious threat for another year, when he beat Ferguson and Tillis.

 

WHen they lost their titles Holmes and ALi were the best heavyweights on paper. In reality both had reached the stage where they struggled to beat rated fighters beyond dispute.

I think Norton was almost an uncrowned champion, it did not look like ALi was going to be a champion very long after the EVangelista fight. And he wasn't.

As early as around the time Holmes beat Bonecrusher SMith fans were beginning to look toward the alternative champions as being stronger at that point. Thomas was beating WItherspoon and weaver easily. At that time WItherspoon and weaver were regarded higher than Smith, Bey and WIlliams. In fact WItherspon, Tubbs Berbick and page on a good night would be favoured over Holmes after the Williams fight.

 

But a fighter worthy of knocking SHarkey spark out at that time would blow the credentials of other rivals right out of the water. The walker fight was close and he was beating uzcudun. Schmeling did a better job on Walker but in two fights the german had not hurt sharkey.

Briggs did not KO foreman and spinks did not KO ALi when both were ripe.

 

Sorry, I misread,. I don't think Rahman scares anybody though.

 

Hasim Rahman,Leon Spinks or Marvin Hart.