Prime Frans Botha - where does he rank among ATG Heavies?

Francois Botha might rank a place or two above Brian Nielsen and Dannell Nicholson in the 1990s, way outside the top 15 or 20 of the era, imo.

I think he's been overrated because the IBF had him ranked somehow and he was twice picked as an easy opponent for famous HWs (Tyson and Lewis).
Tyson should never have come back after the 'bite' incident, he was a mental case with severely diminished skills, and the Botha fight proved it. Nice KO though.

Botha had some impressive longevity, like a carnival fighter.

For what it's worth, every white South African I've met and spoken to about boxing laughs at Botha. A few have suggested that he wasn't even among the top heavyweights in the country at the time, but had good management and backing. The same people are unanimous in admiration for Coetzee, and opinion on Sanders is mixed.

 

I do actually enjoy watching Botha fight though.
He wasn't great at all but he seemed a pretty good sportsman and made a good effort. :good

 

Discrimination kept Botha out of the top ten. Briggs was ranked in the top ten when they fought. Rather than Botha entering the rankings after the match, Briggs got ejected, at least for annual rankings. If Botha were a ripped 6'5 I tend to think he would've been ranked. Instead, he looked like a bowler from Millwaukee.

 

If Briggs was ranked in top 10, that's a case of Briggs being overrated, rather than unfair underrating of Botha.
They were both fringe contenders at best.

 

A victim of fat shaming?

 

I've never even considered it tbh.

His biggest victory was overturned cos of ped abuse. And then he lost every time he stepped up, despite always giving a good effort.

He ended as someone with a lofty reputation without any real victories to put his name to.

Admittedly Moorer, Tyson, Lewis and Holyfield were the cream of his era but he never beat the next level of guys to justify hid reputation.

Obviously he gives anyone a tough night but the likelihood of him emerging victorious against an ATG is slim.

 

Briggs had given a decent showing against Lewis a couple fights before Botha. He deserved to be in the top ten on account of that and s****ing by Foreman. We're talking about guys like Derrick Jefferson, David Izon and post-Lewis Golota rounding out top tens in that period.

 

Getting a gift against an already discredited and 48 year old Foreman, and KO'd in 5 rounds by Lewis is not reason to be in the top 10, especially if when he's NEVER scored a legit win over a contender, and been stopped in 3 rounds by Darroll Wilson.
If Briggs was top-10 worthy then so were about 30 or 40 other guys with similar credentials, and you can't have 40 men in a top 10.

At best we'd call them "fringe contenders".

There's a lot of truth in the statement that Briggs was hugely overrated, far more so than Botha, as evidenced by the fact that RING magazine had him #5 in their ratings at the end of 1998 !

 

Was he better than Mac Foster?

 

No.

 

Briggs received the false rating to protect the lineage.

Squeaking by a 48 year old man wouldn't get such a high rating if it weren't for the fact the lineage was at stake.

 

Wasn't Mercer the first ranked contender he beat? And then no one until Lyakhovic?

Woeful resume for a man of his age and stature.

 

Shannon Briggs also had the advantage of being from Brooklyn, New York.
Heavyweights from the NY metropolitan area have always received publicity and media backing, national and international TV coverage, and high ratings in the NY-based boxing publications.

 

I'm going with The Ring. Izon and Jefferson were. Bean and Mav weren't. Mavrovic was good enough to be but never fought anyone outside of Lewis.

 

At best, he was a former lineal champ in his prime. Strange use of "at best".