Best Heavyweight Resume Ever ?

Ali had the most ... nearly 30 "live" opponents ... and he fought eight of those "live" opponents at least twice ... some three times.

Billy Daniels (16-0)
Doug Jones (21-3-1)
Archie Moore (184-22-10) (World Light Heavyweight champion)
Sonny Liston (35-1) (World Heavyweight champion) fought twice
Floyd Patterson (43-4) (Two-time World Heavyweight champion) fought twice
Henry Cooper (33-11-1) fought twice
Karl Mildenberger (49-2-3)
Cleveland Williams (65-5)
Ernie Terrell (39-4) (WBA heavyweight champion)
Zora Folley (74-7-4)
Jerry Quarry (37-4-4) fought twice
Oscar Bonavena (46-6-1)
Joe Frazier (26-0) (World Heavyweight champion) fought three times
Jimmy Ellis (30-6) (WBA heavyweight champion)
Buster Mathis (29-2)
Mac Foster (28-1)
George Chuvalo (66-17-2) fought twice
Bob Foster (49-5) (World Light Heavyweight champion)
Joe Bugner (43-4) fought twice
Ken Norton (30-1) (WBC Heavyweight champion) fought three times
George Foreman (40-0) (Two-time World Heavyweight champion)
Ron Lyle (30-2-1)
Jimmy Young (17-4-2)
Earnie Shavers (54-5-1)
Leon Spinks (7-0-1) (World Heavyweight champion) fought twice
Larry Holmes (35-0) World Heavyweight champion)
Trevor Berbick (19-2-1) (WBC Heavyweight champion)

 

Holyfield beat more "Lineal" HW Champs than any other fighter. He beat Douglas KO3, Foreman W12 (Hall of Famer), Holmes W12 (Hall of Famer), Bowe W12, Tyson KO11 and WDQ3 (Hall of Famer), Moorer KO8, and Rahman WTD8.

He also beat HW world title holders Thomas KO7, Dokes KO10, Mercer W10, Ruiz W12, and Botha KO8.

He drew with "Lineal" HW Champ Lewis D12 (Hall of Famer) and HW world title holder Ruiz D12.

Up until age 40 he beat or at least drew with every fighter he had faced at some point in his career:

Age 30- lost to Bowe
Age 31- beat Bowe
Age 33 lost to Bowe

Age 31 1/2- lost to Moorer
Age 35- beat Moorer

Age 36 1/2- drew with Lewis
Age 37- lost to Lewis

Age 37 1/2- beat Ruiz
Age 38 1/2- lost to Ruiz
Age 39- drew with Ruiz

13-5-2 (6) in these 20 fights. 15 of these 20 fights were when he was past the age of 30! That means he beat Thomas, Dokes, Douglas, Foreman, and Holmes before he turned 30.

 

Good post but pls stop pretending that draw with Lewis in the 1st fight was legit. Lewis dominated that fight and should have won.

 

Muhammad Ali-56-5-0-(37): In terms of social and historical impact no one even comes close. However, what really puts Ali number one all time is his quality of opposition. Many people consider the 1970’s the best decade in the division’s history and Ali proved beyond a doubt that he was the finest fighter of that or perhaps any generation. Ali holds victories over Joe Frazier (twice), Sonny Liston (twice), Floyd Patterson, Ken Norton (twice), as well as a knockout victory over a prime George Foreman. In total Ali made 21 title defenses during his three reigns as heavyweight champion.
Source: boxinginsider

 

If we are talking about resumes, then it is between Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali.

You can make a case that this heavyweight or that heavyweight would have beaten them, but they have put clear blue water between themselves and any potential number three on paper.

Incidentally there have been other heavyweights who fought a comparable volume of quality opposition, such as Langford, Wills, Holyfield, and even somebody like Turkey Tomphson, but they were not able to maintain anything like the same level of consistency.

 

Not sure why this was ignored. This is a great post. Thanks.

 

Great post that lists Archie Moore and Cleveland Williams as "live opponents", as well as opponents Ali lost to? A joke of a post.

 

What heavyweight resume would you put up as being equal to, or perhaps even greater than Ali’s?

 

Lennox Lewis. Do you have anything to say about Moore or Williams being "live" opponents for Ali?

 

Lewis resume included:

Golota
McCall
Rahman
Morrison
Grant (who was KO'ed by McCline the next fight..in 1 round)
Briggs
Mavroric
Botha (wow)


This looks like the real bum of the month club. How live was old Holyfield or Tua? Ali would have embarrased all of these men. Louis would have put a KO1 by each of their names.

 

I don’t particularly wish to put myself forward as arguing for these fights as legacy builders, but they are not insignificant.

Ali fought twice as many opponents who were currently ranked in the top ten as Lennox Lewis, and he does not have two damaging knockout losses on his record, so I do not think that Lewis has a case for having a better resume.

 

If you think that beating these two opponents had any significance, we have nothing else to talk about.
So you prefer quantity over quality?
Ali has plenty of other embarassing things on his record.

 

Word play. Beating Moore and Williams was meaningless. I think 90% of Lennox Lewis' opponents would have defeated those versions of Moore and Williams.

Being rated in Top 10 can mean absolutely nothing. I've seen plenty of those ratings where they listed fighters who's names no modern boxing fan would even recognize. A lot of Ali's opponent's names are remembered only because of Ali himself, not because they were any good.

Is getting nearly stopped by Henry Cooper less embarassing? Ken Norton was a second-rater at best for his epoch, who only got elevated and received recognition because of post-exile Ali's inability to look good vs boxers. Get Ali to fix his teeth before the first bout, and Norton's name would have remained in the same class with Bugner, Wepner, etc.