Cleveland Williams is nowhere near even Ingemar Johansson in any OBJECTIVE metric.

I don't know. I think it's whomever lands first, IMO. I don't think he'd take Ingo's flush right hand too well.

Also, I can't say I buy the premise that he'd just walk through every sub 200 pound fighter with ease. There are fighters sub 200 lbs who at their best, I'd favor over Williams at his best.

It would have been good if he could have fought Floyd Patterson, though I'd lean towards Patterson to win.

 

Maher fought consistently above 180 lbs. He wasn't a LHW, he was top-tier HW contender with over 100 KOs on his resume.

 

I wouldn't favor Ingo over the best of Max Baer and Max Schmeling. He'd be a toss up with Sharkey, Carnera and Braddock though I ever so slightly favor him vs Carnera and Braddock.

I also pick him to knock senseless a peak Tyson.

 

Especially as he didn't walk through every sub-200lber he faced with ease. Quite a few managed to go the distance with him. And it's not as if they were world beaters.

 

Said in true Klompton fashion

 

Imagine if every fighter never had a career after 13 years or the age of 30.

 

Ive never thought Williams walks through sub 200 pounders.I'd expect Dempsey to stop him .

 

And he was ko'd himself about 20 times.

 

Fitz was too small. Wasn't he like 150 pounds?

 

Salvador Sanchez never had a career after the age of 23. At least Williams was still alive and got to make a comeback.

 

Imagine if Ali retired in 1972, Liston in 1960, Foreman stays retired, Holmes in 79. Absolute bollocka this guy is talking. Not to mention, Williams was reaching his potential. He had just beaten Daniels in a one-sided manner to qualify for a title match against Terrell in a VERY winnable fight. The idea that this shooting had no affect on his career is laughable.

 

I'd also expect peak cruiser Holyfield to stop him, the best versions of Charles, Walcott and Moore, Marciano, probably Patterson, Michael Spinks (although I'm thinking the 200+ pound version) maybe Harold Johnson to win a decision.

 

Exactly, and to this day people still wonder if we ever saw the best of Sanchez.

Maybe we did see the best of Williams, we just don't know.

Every era has a contender that people prop up as a potential champ under other circumstances. That's all this is. No one says he's an ATG. All they say is he looked like beast, had speed and power and his career was cut short.

I just think he's slightly different to Tua, Ray, Shavers, Lyle, Quarry etc because we saw their full career, we can't say that about Williams.

 

Well yeah, so we can only go by what we saw of them, rather than what they might have done next. But what we saw of Sanchez before he died was pretty damn good IMO. Personally, at 31 and with 69 fights to his name, I think we'd probably already seen the best of Williams.