Who was the most overrated heavyweight boxer of all time?

A lot of people had Grant pegged to be the future of the Heavyweight division

 

On here: Langford, Baer, Schmeling, Liston, Walcott, Foreman, Wills

 

Don't understand why people say Mike Tyson is overrated. He's rated in the bottom half of the Top 10 and some lists don't even have him in that! The dude did some unbelievable things before the age of 23 that most ATG's haven't accomplished in their entire career.

Anyways, it's a tough question. For me to answer this truthfully I'd have to pick a fighter whose accomplishments are few and yet the fans gush over. A number of heavyweights fit the bill. In the past I would say Rocky Marciano and George Foreman. Despite being undefeated Marciano fought his fair share of old heavyweights past their best date and struggled. However, he found a way to beat them all without losing a bout. He retired undefeated and that's saying a lot.

George Foreman's record is padded, in both careers, with fighters who lost more than they won. But when it came time to win the championship Foreman got the job done with devastating KO's against some great fighters. Becoming the oldest heavyweight champion in history saved his career.

Deontay Wilder might take the cake here. His career is far from over, though.

And now Andy Ruiz is talked about as being great despite beating a fighter who struggles when the going gets tough. His career is far from over as well.

 

Want this thread to mean something and not be a place for emotional nonsense? For that to happen we have to clarify what exactly overrated means and to whom.
Start with the last part: Overrated by fans vs overrated by boxing announcers/journalists.

Now, overrated and what it means EXACTLY. To me overrated means that they are collectively rated higher in terms of all time great status by BOTH groups.

I will use Mike Tyson as an example.

Casual fans over rated Tyson for instance, telling you he decapitated everyone from John L Sullivan to Godzilla. Boxing pundits however rarely give him his proper due. He faced seven (7) current or former world champions in his first thirty five (35) fights and ran through the division on his way to becoming the youngest heavyweight champion ever. So in all honesty he is somewhere in the middle.

The real question is who is rated high on all time great lists by both fans and boxing professionals that you don’t believe should be as highly ranked as they are.

My two cents: Canelo Alvarez. Aside from his history with clenbuterol and nandrolone, he has a blatant history of bribed judges.

https://thegruelingtruth.com/boxing/history-bad-judging-canelo-alvarez/

That’s just my two cents. Discuss

 

I think all on here are rated at about where they actually are.

 

Ibeabuchi
Tua
Baer

 

David Tua.

 

Big punchers are almost always overrated. David Tua is an excellent example. Earnie Shavers is another.

I bet that Maher would also be overrated had he fought 60 years later. Unfortunately, he fought before film became important and we don't see him knocking out guys in early rounds. So instead, he's actually underrated.

 

Tyson with Rooney was better than Lewis, Tua, Vitali and Liston though, he was a work in progress and threw it all away.

 

I feel Fury ws brilliant v Wilder, he just made the mistake of moving back in a straight line, he didn`t do that v Wlad though.

 

Bowe was easy to hit on the inside and got beat by Lewis at the olmypics in a messy wild bout.

 

Tua isn’t over rated, he had big bones and the South Pacific skeleton that defies all logic!

 

That`s because Haye ran away most of that fight, but all Valuev did was plod forwards throwing the same predictable punches he didn`t adjust at all, like Ruiz v Jones.

 

No I'd say Lewis was better than Tyson honestly (though I pick Tyson to beat him on styles prime for prime). Perhaps Liston too

 

What?