Leon Spinks, Jim Braddock & Tyson Fury - rank the worst lineal HW champs in order.

Funny because he has a record number of defences.

Tied with Frazier, Lewis and Vitali.

 

I picked Wlad to beat him ,I gave Fury a chance because of two things, his age and his very big *****, he believed he would win.

 

A ****** and a bum who got exposed in sparring Holyfield as an amateur.

Don King set him against bums up until Mike pulled ok of his fight with Holy (after Evander was the number one contender for two years) and got whooped by Douglas.

Finally Evander did what we knew he was gonna do - totally dismantled Tyson and ko d his ass lol

 

Very good point but let's be fair. This is the Superheavyweight division now and already Fury could be top ten among them since Wlad is arguably the #2 all-time super heavyweight.

Not that it is the same division at all but back a weight class down at "classic heavyweight" Braddock and Spinks were never the best heavyweight in the world. They deserved to be champion but their title win did not give them "best in the world" status. Fury (up at superheavyweight) has.

Remember Joe Louis' own maxim that he did not regard himself as champion until he could beat Schmeling?

When Spinks was champ Ken Norton was arguably considered the best active heavyweight in the world not Leon. Ali was barely getting away with points decisions and clearly at the end of the road before facing Spinks. Ali had slipped since his controversial last fight with Norton who since then still had elite form whilst the champ declined further. When Braddock was champ the best in the world was either Louis or Schmeling. Nobody thought it was Braddock that's why ex champ Baer vs joe Louis was almost a million dollar gate during Braddocks reign. Baer was still considered better than Jimmy AFTER losing to Braddock.

Nobody can say this about Wlad. He was head and shoulders above anything else in his most recent wins. It's not hat long ago he destroyed Pulev and Potvekin. He beat them out if sight. Wlad was the top man at the time Fury beat him. Let's not take that away from him.

 

horrible thread, they are all world champs for christs sake.

 

The overwhelming consensus was that Holyfield was in grave danger of being seriously hurt when he took that fight.

 

Fury might be pretty good.
He seems to have upset a few people this weekend.:rofl

 

Lots of misinformation here.

Spinks caused a great sensation winning the Olympic gold metal with his aggressive hard punching swarming style.

MANY wanted to see him fight Ali for the championship and as such he was pushed along too quickly.

There is no doubt Spinks displayed more ability beating Ali than the beyond belief no skill amateur affair that was called a hwt championship fight on Saturday.

After losing to Ali it was a downward spiral for Spinks. Let's see what happens with Fury. However no doubt at comparable stages of their career Spinks was the far more skilled hwt. Fury skill level is the lowest I have ever witnessed in winning a so called championship fight.

 

Not for the division he's now in -Superheavyweight. Guys that Big can't always demonstrate their technique as most people understand it and forever compromise to suit the limited pace they have.

It won't get better among guys of this size trust me.

Klitchsko only looked as good as he did because he most often had the experience to bring things to his walking pace.

 

Good boxing skill is good boxing skill. These fighters are not trained to fight. They are trained to be big.

 

Perry

While you have a point that I agree with to an extent, you are carrying it right off the cliff in my judgment.

"They are trained to be big."

There is a saying in basketball--

'You can't coach height'

Are a lot of the big guys that have dominated basketball over the years the best passers, the best dribblers, the fastest or most coordinated, the one with the widest repertory of shots and who are most likely to swish a three-pointer?

No. They were just the tallest relatively talented players.

Nor in boxing can anyone teach big. Big is something you are, not something you can train. If you are gifted with this asset, you can then be trained to exploit it.

In fairness, it has always been the case that a smaller guy has to be a lot more skilled or have out of proportion assets such as stamina or punching power to overcome size disadvantages.

And don't put Fury down that much. He is at the upper end of the heavyweight division of his era in height and weight. For that size he has great mobility and decent skills and stamina.

But a point that is under all this I wouldn't dispute. Esthetically the big fellows are not even close to as interesting to watch if one appreciates the highest levels of boxing skill. They are just big fellows who can take advantage of their size to beat much more skilled and athletic smaller men. I think it is a real question if the modern super-heavyweights will prove the death knell in the end for the mainstream popularity of boxing.

For most of us, it is not entertaining to see a big fellow beat up a small fellow just because he is so much bigger.

In the old days there used to be a saying to 'pick on someone your own size'

 

There's a difference between favoring old timers and being a cartoon character.

 

They did create a Super Middleweight division about 25 years ago

Why not create a Super Heavyweight division and up the weight limit at Cruiserweight to 215lb?

Then re-name the Cruiswerweight division the heavyweight division and we can go back to watching classic heavyweight boxing. The idea of comparing giants such as Wlad and Fury with heavyweights from before the 1990s is a joke - its a different division now with a different skill set required but happens to have the same name so people get confused as to how Fury could possibly be HW champion.

 

Shannon Briggs was the worst.

He got a bullshlt win over Foreman who was the Lineal HW Champ but had no belts because he refused to fight his WBA/IBF mandatories. That win got him a fight vs. Lewis... Lewis KO5 but Briggs did have a few good moments early on.

Leon Spinks was pretty shltty but his win over Ali was a solid performance. Sure, Ali beat him later that year and Spinks didn't do much after that... but he had looked decent up until that point.