Without a doubt, The Greatest Heavyweight Champ ever

Probably the same kind of wins that got Morrison, cooper or damiani ranked... He did knockout the dangerous Johnny duplooy in only his 11th pro bout. Beat future long term cruiser champ Johnny Nelson. Defeated Ross purity when he had a good enough win streak to be considered fringe and a few other guys of comparable pedigree. Nobody really elite however, but his resume his hardly the type of padded trash that it's commonly made out to be.

 

Nah.. I watched the guys earlier prospect fights and it isn't hard to see he had talent. He moved around real good for a big guy. Had fast hands. Excellent timing on the left. Could knock a man out or soundly outbox him over 10 or 12 rounds.. I'll grant you his opposition wasn't stellar but the guy could fight.

 

That is the only short lived ranking he got with Ring magazine.
I can't find Garcia in the Ring ratings,

 

Alex Garcia was briefly ranked in the monthly ring magazine rankings around 1991 or so. But it wasn't really deserved. There were lots of guys ranked from month to month that won't appear on the "annual" ratings page.

 

I think Arum might've pulled some strings and gotten him up there. Arum and Foreman approached Garcia for a match but Garcia turned it down thinking he needed more work. Not long after he lost to Mike Dixon and thus ruining his chance to gain big money.

 

I remember that fight being talked about.. I saw Garcia fight jerry jones on ESPN I believe. Fight went 12 rounds and I thought jones narrowly deserved the decision. He also fought a guy names Eric curry who did fairly well against him before being stopped in the 12th.. Garcia had good power and was fun to watch but also had some glaring flaws... Still hard to believe he lost to some of the trial horses he did though.

 

I think arguing over who is the best all time is too hard. It's better to just argue whom you can make a case for. The heavyweights you can make a case for being GOAT are as follows:

Louis
Ali
Holmes
Lewis
Vlad

That's about all. And how you rank those five is very subjective. It depends what you like.

 

I agree completely with the second part of this post. Out of curiosity, where do you rank him?

 

Alex Garcia had that hard look, especially with the "San Fer" ink across his belly. I wish I could upload pics of his tattoo here, but oh well. That was a first for a heavyweight, or any boxer that I can remember. Made him look scary. But yeah, he had enough power (with glaring flaws) to be considered a worthy opponent for a comebacking Foreman.

 

Not to mention he had some uprising popularity fighting often on ESPN and USA. May not sound like much now, but those networks catapulted fighters back then.

 

Flyweight Joey Olivo had La Grande Hazard to represent his Big Hazard gang membership. HW Eddie Lopez was from the same gang and flashed signs in the ring. I don't remember his ink.

 

Oh yes. I forgot about The Animal. Olivo too. I guess I didn't discover them until later. Garcia I got to experience live. They're all from Southern California.

 

My problem isnt with Sanders resume ,its with the absurd statement that Lewis ducked him for 10 years? Sanders wasn't on the radar screen for 99.5% of that time.

 

How can you not include Marciano in that list?

 

Eleven or twelve.