In my eyes only Gene Tunney of the Carpentier and Tommy Gibbons fights might have beaten Ezzard Charles as a light heavyweight. Tunney was so difficult to beat as a LH that even the immortal Harry Greb felt that Tunney was getting too big to handle after their 5th bout...Ezzard Charles in my opinion was a better LH than Ali was as a heavyweight, hands down. But Ezzard was low key as a personality, while Ali was a great self promoter. I would say that my man Billy Conn is not to be overlooked, as what Billy did against the great 30 pound heavier Joe Louis for 13 rounds was truly amazing. So I have in historical order: Gene Tunney Ezzard Charles Billy Conn Archie Moore Bob Foster S Kovalev ? P.S. In the 1920s there was Jack Delaney who was so highly thought of as a great LH, but was a drinker of spirits shall we say. He was good enough to flatten Tiger Flowers Twice in one bout. And Paul Berlenbach ,who was a powerful wrestler who turned to boxing and became a LH champion and a powerful hitter...
Believe it or not Spinks with his size advantage, speed and power could be his toughest stylistic match up at 175 .. Foster is always out there but seemed to **** out against heavyweights so I'm hesitant to say him even thought this is at 175 .. Tunney had the chin, strength, speed and conditioning to be very tough as well ..
Spinks is stylistically tough for any 175 pounder imo, his herky jerky style , height , serious power and decent boxing ability make him a real hard nut to crack! I love Bob Foster, but not against Charles. John Henry Lewis,Harold Johnson anyone?
Foster did have pulverising power and Charles could be hurt/KO'd, so I'd give him a decent shot here. Greb could do it. He did routinely weigh between 160 and 175. Tough to make anyone a favourite over Charles though.
Greb seems like an obvious candidate, in my opinion. Charles couldn't beat Ken Overlin, a poor man's version of Harry.
...charles was too inexperienced for overlin when they fought. overlin was a highly experienced very tricky southpaw....a real cutie. when the match was proposed overlin said, "no guy with 22 fights is going to beat me. now 22 fights practically makes a guy a veteran, but back then was different. they did fight a draw in their rematch and i haven't heard much about it being a hometown decision. plus, we're talking about light heavies here, and ezzard and overlin were middleweights when they fought. as to light heavies, while i think ezz was the greatest light heavy in history, those mentioned here...tunney, conn and a couple of others could beat ezzard, but i wouldn't make them the favorite, which is the question posed for this thread.
