Ranking the Heavyweight Champions

This seemed like fun. This is open to revision is anyone makes any compelling arguments. I did this by ranking the fighters era by era, and then merging them into a single ranking

I decided to include a few exceptional black fighters who never got a shot (Peter Jackson, Sam McVea, Joe Jeanette, Sam Langford, Harry Wills). Perhaps Larry Gains and George Godfrey II should be included, honestly I don't know enough about them. I would like to include some of the bareknuckle champions, but they're really hard to rate, and I need to do a lot more research on a lot of them, I'll do one including them some day. Sadly this means that the greatest Heavyweight, and P4P fighter, who ever lived, David Tua, will not be included.

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Joe Louis
3. Jack Johnson
4. Rocky Marciano
5. Lennox Lewis
6. James J Jeffries
7. Mike Tyson
8. George Foreman
9. Larry Holmes
10. Evander Holyfield
11. Ezzard Charles
12. Joe Frazier
13. Wladimir Klitschko
14. Sonny Liston
15. Jack Dempsey
16. John L Sullivan
17. Max Schmeling
18. Jersey Joe Walcott
19. Floyd Patterson
20. Riddick Bowe
21. Bob Fitzsimmons
22. Peter Jackson
23. Sam Langford
    
24. Harry Wills
25. Gene Tunney
26. Max Baer
27. Tyson Fury
    
28. James J Corbett
29. Joe Jeanette
30. Sam McVea
31. Ingemar Johansson
32. James J Braddock
33. Jess Willard
34. Primo Carnera
35. Hasim Rahman
36. Jack Sharkey
37. Buster Douglas
38. Michael Moorer
39. Tommy Burns
40. Shannon Briggs
41. Michael Spinks
42. Leon Spinks
43. Marvin Hart

Please remember to tell what an idiot I am, and that my list is ****.

 

I actually sorta thought they would be higher, but I ended up decided the guys in front deserved to be in front. I gave a good bit of credit for dominant title reigns. Lennox Lewis, and Jeffries both had impressive title reigns, and in pretty good eras (more controversial with Jeffries), though Johnson's title reign was lackluster, when you include his accomplishments pre-title, it's an extremely impressive career, dominating both sides of the color line.

It's basically lineal only, though I included some of the black champions, since they were denied a shot.

 

I put an emphasis on what they did in their era, in that regard, you can't get much better than 49-0, as H2H is so hypothetical, and our consenus, let alone individual opinions, could be way off.

 

There's obviously not a lot between Charles and Walcott IMO that lot are all fairly close. Charles has a combo of good wins, and a decent title reign that puts him at the front of that pack IMO.

I think I'll move Frazier from 15 on reflection maybe up to 13, though I suspect you meant more than that. He probably ought to be higher, though I do think the nature of his loss to Foreman does drop him a bit.

I'm curious what your ranking is (not a full one, just a top 10 or whatever)

 

Good list. I'm going to watch Ali Vs Frazier as I haven't seen it in years, then make up my mind where exactly to rank him, though I probably won't have him quite that high.

Actually one disagreement I'd have with that, is I think there should be more of a gap between Jeffries and Dempsey, since I think Jeffries had a much better reign.

 

For sure. I swaped around Fitz and Jackson from a ranking just over a month ago! I was originally going to put Wlad ahead of Charles too, but when I thought about it I'm not sure Wlad had any wins as good as Louis and Walcott. It also depends what you rank on, it's practically an aesthetic judgement.

I'm not trying to argue BTW, I'm actually legit interested in your opinion.

 

I think Sharkey's inconsistency lowers him, plus winning the title with a questionable decision, and loosing it by KO in the next fight. I'll consider moving him up though, anything especially you'd like me to consider?

I intend to move Frazier up a couple places, I haven't decided where exactly yet, probably just behind Wlad.

I considered putting Holmes higher, but in the end I decided Foreman's destruction of Frazier and winning the title in his 40's put him ahead, as well as the spectacularness of Tyson. With Walcott, I think Schmeling beat a much better Louis, and for all the question marks, no one has been as dominant as Sullivan.

But if you feel like it, I'm open to being convinced otherwise.

Curious who you disagree on being ahead of Patterson.

 

Moved Frazier from 15 to 12 for now, not 100% sure about this, but probably might as well move him now so it doesn't keep getting brought up.