Choose the best Heavyweight in boxing history.

For me it is Ali, Holmes and Lewis...in that order.

I believe their particular style of boxing demonstrated the required characteristics that would have been sufficient to beat all the other fighters.

 

Two 10 rounders over a shot, overrated champ who drew the color line does not a great heavyweight resume make. Tunney has no place in this discussion. And to the critical eye, neither does the man he beat for the White Heavyweight Title.

 

Ali is the only one who you can make a strong case for both h2h and resume.

Holmes and Lennox are his closest competitors. They are h2h monsters, but Ali's resume is a slight notch above. They both still had superb careers and very very few heavies accomplished more in the ring than Larry or Lennox.

Guys like Vitali, Bowe, and Liston were fearsome opponents h2h but had pretty mediocre resumes.

Holyfield can make a strong case for top 5 maybe even top 3 but his career was so inconsistent with so many ups and downs it's impossible to place him as #1.

Similarly, Joe Louis and Marciano did the best they could in their era. Excellent records. But in h2h against men much bigger from later eras it's a bit fo a mystery figuring out how they'd do. For the record, in terms of just pure skill Louis might be #1 ever.

Wladmir has a good resume but the era was weak on average and he has approximately 0 wins over hall of famers. He's a force to be reckoned with h2h...as as long as he doesn't get hit too hard.

So basically the conclusion is Ali is the only one you can place as #1 for both categories.

 

You're being unreasonable, he beat a FADED Dempsey which was by no means greater or the equivalent of Frazier's win over Ali it is beneath Joes win by so many notches it's not relevant. Adding salt to the wound Gene lost to a washed up Dempsey with fair play, who are all these great heavyweight fighters that Tunney beat that are greater then Joes win over Ali?

How do you even consider Joes resume thin?
Quarry, Ringo, Chuvalo, Mathis, Foster, Ellis, Ali?
Frazier had plenty of fine wins and all his best wins at heavyweight are of a finer vintage then Genes.

 

I voted for Ali but in truth I have it as a tie between him and Joe Louis.

 

In terms of greatness it's a 2 horse race, but given Ali's wins over a third of the rest of my top 10, I find it very hard to buy a case for Louis but it can be made. Lewis & Holmes are clearly torn for the 3rd spot and no other heavyweight has an reasonable case for being above those 4 imo. But anyways, Ali & Louis are clearly top 2.

H2H is much more subjective, but imo it comes down to 3 guys, Ali, Lewis & Holmes.
I have Ali at #1 as I only have him losing to Frazier in his prime for sure(in the sense that I don't flip-flop with it).
Holmes is #2, coz I got him losing to Frazier, Ali & 50/50 with Lewis.

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In a vacuum, basing it off fundamental skill, the top 3 would be Louis, Holyfield & Tyson but physical attributes and intangibles seriously matter, and Ali has to ranked highly again.

So yeah, in conclusion; It's Ali.

 

Ali

 

I have the opposite problem.

 

It doesn't help that the terms of the question are not very clearly defined.

In terms of resume?

Hell no.

Historical impact?

A fair case.

Head to head?

Just about arguably.

 

Ali for me on resume with a little bit of daylight. H2H a lot closer.
No issues though people picking Louis, Holmes or Lewis.

 

I’m fine with either one of them being #1. In truth I really don’t rank one over the other anymore.

 

Joe Louis stands pretty tall here anyway you want to measure it. The H2H part is mostly bull**** anyway. It's an opinion and everyone of us has picked fights wrong. With that said there is nobody in the division that ever fought that Louis couldn't beat on any given day.
His accomplishments are what count. Joe accomplished more than
(Insert name)

 

I have a problem placing Lewis over Holy in the top five a) because Holy didn't get knocked out in his prime by two slightly above average fighters and b) Lewis had one heck of a time beating Holy (twice), quite a bit past Holy's prime.

I do have huge respect for Lewis and have him #5 as ATG, over Foreman and Marciano.

 

This is a goos point. Holyfield was very consistent, in shape, and gave it his all in every fight. It wasnt until the moore fight that his career got derailed and we saw the inconsistent up and down performances (due to health and aging).

In his prime, Holyfield's only loss was to Bowe who was 6 years younger, 3 inches taller, and 30 lbs heavier. And he got a standing ovation for such an incredibly spirited performance. He had scary moments and struggled against Cooper and Foreman but at the end of the day he WON those fights.

Lewis did indeed get sparked out by 2 mediocre heavies in his prime. He arguably got a gift against Mercer (i had the fight a draw and can see an argument for Mercer winning by split decision). For all his natural talent and size, it seems Lewis took quite a long time to become a fully developed top tier heavyweight. Think about it: when Bowe, Ruddock, holyfield, and Tyson had already been im several wars with each other as pros, Lennox couldn't manage to get a good medal the first time and remained an amateur for an additional 4 years until he finally captured it. We also can't overlook the fact he had one of the best trainers of all time: Emmanuel Stewart. The 2 best fighters he faced were very well past their prime (Tyson and holyfield) and the 3rd best (Vitali) gave him hell despite being very young and inexperienced in a controversial fight that screamed "rematch" but Lennox wouldn't oblige him. A little hypocritical given how he moved heaven and earth to avenge his losses/close fights but wouldn't settle the score with vitali (or Mercer for that matter).

Holyfield also fought damn near everyone (the majority of them in their primes), including Chris byrd and John Ruiz, 2 men Lennox refused to face for whatever reason.

Despite saying all that, Lennox still has a very respectable resume. He destroyed golota in 1 round at a time when some thought golota was a top 3 fighter in the division. He demolished Ruddock in 2, stopped a prime hard hitting Shannon Briggs, and embarrsed a prime david tua winning almost every round in a shutout.

But is that enough to rank lennox over holyfield? I'm not so sure anymore. Drawing with Holyfield in their 1st fight and beating him in the 2nd fight isn't particularly relevant or noteworthy because A) many people thought holyfield won the 2nd fight and B) holyfield was 37 with way more miles on the clock than Lennox (who took much longer to turn pro and hadn't been in as many wars).

 

Ok lets stick to just accomplishments. Which Joe Louis fight do you think is more impressive than Ali vs Foreman?