10 Giant Killers who fought much heavier foes

and former Transvaal Heavyweight Champion!

 

Hey Burt. I was wondering that myself. Better late than never. :good

 

great idea for a thread

which is a reason not to include him in such a list

yes , tyson should definitely be in such a list , qawi is a honorable mention too.

another worthy candidate , but #1 ? was he better than qawi ? let alone tyson and langford ?

ray robinson was the giant himself , as he enjoyed height and reach advantages in the vast majority of his fights ,

my list , based more on height than weight , but , in average weight increases quicker than height :
1. Mike Tyson
2. Sam Langford
3. Joe Walcott
4. David Tua
5. Muhammad Qawi
6. Henry Armstrong
7. James Toney
8. Lamon Brewster
9. Oliver McCall (Lewis , Akiwande , Lance Whitaker (decision+knockdown))
10. Orlin Norris

i thought of byrd and norris , but especially byrd was no knockout artist , no killer.
both , especially norris may be in at other times.
frazier , joe mesi , herbie hide , jeremy williams , bert cooper and darroll wilson also came to consideraton but failed the top 10 , at least for now. some of them will continue to fail i , guess.
pacquiao too was considered , but he avoided much bigger men , except delahoya.

 

Holyfield fought-

Douglas KO3... 6'4", 83" reach, 246Lbs.

Foreman W12... 6'4", 82" reach, 257Lbs.

Holmes W12... 6'3 1/2", 81" reach, 233Lbs.

Bowe L12, W12 and LKOby8... 6'5", 84" reach, 246Lbs.

Lewis D12 and L12... 6'5", 84" reach, 245Lbs.

Valuev L12... 7', 85" reach, 310 3/4 Lbs.

 

The Ghost with a hammer in his hand.

 

Jerry quarry?

 

Terrific list Burt ...

Langford is my number 1

 

Why no Roberto Duran? He beat up welterweights, light middleweights and middleweights while aging and a once lightweight was one round away from becoming the Undisputed Middleweight champion of the world, nearly upsetting Marvelous Marvin Hagler! He at least, did something natural middleweights could not do: go the distance with the champ. He handed Leonard his first defeat, he beat Davey Moore badly, Moore basically lost everything. He lost a championship, he lost his prime, and his career by one beating, beat Iran Barkley, who maybe was a natural HEAVYWEIGHT, and after that, he beat both Pazienza and Camacho in robbery losses, and beat Castro.

 

True, but he was ahead of his time. He was still clearly one of the ATG fighters, but you got to wonder, how would he have done today against the Klitschko Brothers? When he fought an equal, Jack Johnson, Harry Wilis, he lost.

 

Spot on :good

 

Deserves mention:

Archie Moore 5'11" beat

Alejandro Lavorante 6'4" +14 lbs
Nino Valdez 6'3" +15 lbs, +25 lbs,
Bob Baker 6'2" +19 lbs
James J Parker 6'3" +25 lbs
Alberto Lovell 6'3"
Howard King 6'2"
Bob Satterfield 6'2"

 

Ezzard Charles 6'0" beat

Joe Louis 6'3" +33lbs
John Holman 6'3" +10 lbs
Joe Baski 6'1" +32 lbs
Elmer Ray 6'2" +17 lbs
Colley Wallace 6'2" +10 lbs
Cesar Brion 6'3" +15 lbs
Joe Walcott +15 lbs
Jimmy Bivins +10 lbs

 

He was only 176-180 in those fights.

 

langford
fitzimmons
walcott
wilde
burley
armstrong

after these 6 i have about 20 names that i cant see much between in this context. I put a lot of effort into organising the 6, but any order is fine tbh

i still kind of want to put fitz at no1, i'd usually give a lot of weight to tough championship fights, but that doesn't seem right here, and part of his peak was spent at his natural weight.

i didn't include natural hw's like tyson, but if was just a list for overcoming height he'd be up there

 

Moore,Charles and Walcott and Satterfield basically cleaned out the 50's of the BIG men but LaStarza beat a couple and so did Harold Johnson...Walcott beat a few big guys as well Hein Ten Hoff 6"6 and others

Marciano KO the 6"4 Vingo and another 6"6 guy but by the time he got to the title the best men were the capable and experienced smaller guys, all of the #1 contenders that Marciano fought were giant Killers