In order of greatness: Michael Dokes, Tony Tucker, Mike Weaver,

Ok.

 

When it comes to ability and were talking about them at their very best I'd say it goes Tucker then Dokes then Weaver. Overall I'd say they had pretty even career accomplishments each one held the world title briefly I believe Weaver is the only one to have successfully defended it unless you count Dokes draw in the rematch against Weaver a successful defense. All three of them also have some bad losses on their records a lot of which came at points in their careers where they weren't at top forum. Dokes and Tucker were both very talented and at points in their careers looked excellent. I will never forget a somewhat diminished Dokes giving Evander Holyfield the fight of his life, what a war that was. Weaver on the other hand was just extremely strong with crunching power and had a never say die attitude which made him dangerous the entire fight.

 

1. Weaver had the strongest run, with the great showing against Holmes, the KOs over Tate and Coetzee, and the deserved close win over Dokes that was ruled a draw. Really amazing turn around of what was at first an unremarkable career.


I don't know, after that I have Tucker and Dokes even.

-Tucker was a much better fighter than this resume shows, he just didn't get the opportunties and had management issues. He gave Tyson oneof his better fights of the 80s, had a good win against Douglas, and a close past prime win over Norris.

-I believe Dokes was gifted the title with two controversial bouts against Weavers, he got KOed by Coetzee, struggled with Cobb, but at least had a fun fight with Holyfield to close his career as a contender.

 

Why I picked Tucker ahead of Weaver in terms of ability was that I feel Weaver fought at too slow a pace in a lot of his fights and owing to him being slightly knock-kneed, his mobility suffered. His chin was also merely decent...never great.
Tucker trumps him big in both movement and chin. Weaver had one hell of a left hook though, and was one of the few heavies who was very comfortable fighting off the ropes.

 

Weaver was far and away the biggest puncher and had a decent jab and skills … however he had a shaky chin and was a dangerously slow starter .. Dokes wasted his prime on drugs and came back with his best days behind him .. His Red Badge of Courage was the Holyfield fight .. still, he was never a big puncher or in exceptional shape … Tucker was a huge under achiever, somehow just never living up to his promise ..

 

Dokes had huge ability but not the best achievement. However, if great fights make great fighters ring magazine voted Dokes v Holyfeild the best heavyweight fight of the decade and that was at the end of dokes second coming. It has to count for something.

Tucker proved to be the second best heavyweight of the Tyson era. After all, in back to back title fights he fought buster douglas and prime Mike Tyson one after the other and Tony fared as well in those fights as you could expect of many an ATG. Yet his career lost momentum and ground was lost. Tucker was proberbly the best of a batch of three who were about as good as anyone outside of Tyson in the late 1980s. I always felt that if Truth Williams, buster and Tucker had been given the opportunity Tubbs, Berbick and Smith might never have been champions.

Weaver was a warrior. A poor mans Holyfeild he over acheived and could never be written off. For all he could lose badly to Holmes, Dokes and Smith he could produce shocking wins like Tate, Coetzee and Truth Williams when each were regarded the second best or so in the world. Even late in his career weaver still beat good names like Bert Cooper almost 20 years after his first fight.

Potentially Tucker and Dokes should go above weaver but on acheivement neither can hold a candle to old Hercules. However, I think Tucker got a bum deal compared to Dokes. For all his talent I place Dokes last because he never fought anyone regarded the most outstanding heavyweight at the time he fought them. Tucker and weaver did, they may have lost but Holmes and Tyson were universally recognised as the best out there when losing to them. Weaver fared worse than Tucker when it was his turn. Tony also hung tough against a prime Lewis.

Tucker
Weaver
Dokes

 

dokes
tucker
weaver

 

Talent means nothing unless you do something with it. Because of this, Weaver has to come first. He accomplished far more than either of the other two. Victories over Tate, Coetzee, Tillis (the version of Tillis Weaver faced was on a par with any version of Tucker, I think) and Carl Williams eclipse anything the other two did by some margin.

Dokes beat one worthwhile heavy in Weaver but it was taken out of Weaver's hands to a large degree, and Weaver deserved the decision in the rematch. Tucker head to rally to beat an uninspired Douglas. That is the only decent name in his win column.

 

Tucker also beat Orlin Norris and Oliver McCall who were both useful fighters and arguably better than Tillis and on par with Carl Williams. His victories over both of these fighters were not overwhelming but still decent scalps.

 

Well you could also include the Weaver fight against Mercado then. At the time, it was supposed to be a slaughter. And there was backing on Mercado at the time and he never did come back after that defeat.

Not to mention the added pressure of fighting the house fighter. How many times did we see Tucker and dokes take their act on the road in front of 80,000 fans cheering for the other guy?

Even overlooked fights by Weaver were cases of the guy going into the lions den---Ledoux in Minnesota. Everyone else takes the fight somewhere else.

If Dokes and Tucker between them went into the lions den how many times? Tucker took on Hide in Norwich---how'd that go ? Maybe Dokes Occasio 1--how'd that one turn out? That's always the single hardest thing to do in the sport.

 

Each time weaver fought the man regarded as the best active heavyweight in the world (Holmes and Thomas) he was knocked out.

Each time Tucker fought the man regarded as the best active heavyweight in the world (Tyson and Lewis) he did better than Weaver did.

Dokes never ever fought a guy regarded as the curent best HW in the world.





This thread could be called "who was the better world #2 heavyweight?"

 

The same as you. Dokes was the most gifted out of the three. What a shame that he was such an underachiever in proportion to his talent.

 

Weaver
Tucker
Dokes

Where would the great Tony Tubbs fit into this motley crew?

 

Good question.