Best five wins thread. Lineal / Ring Magazine heavyweight champions.

Yeah, Douglas has one of the best top wins ever and the rest of his top 5 isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would. Definitely not among the worst.

 

On to Holyfield, who took the crown from Douglas. Placing the 40's versions of Foreman or Holmes could get interesting. The voting closes Thursday night.

1. Bowe - A razor thin win clouded by a 17+ minute break in the action. Bowe was at his best. However, Bowe won the series 2-1.

2. Tyson - The post prison Tyson doesn't rate with the pre-prison Tyson. Never the less is still a very good win.

3. Moorer - Avenged a points loss with a stoppage win.

4. Ruiz. - A better fighter than I care to admit, the judging in the first fight which was won by Holyfield ( the series went 1-1-1 ) was questionable.

5. Holmes - Still a good fighter in his 40's.

 

Coetzee was coming off a win over a decent Tills, and fought 4 more times after Bruno. Not exactly cashing out., rather in a must win position losing to Bruno.

 

Agree to disagree.

 

Holy;
Bowe
Thomas
Dokes
Tyson
Moorer

 

Holyfield

1. Bowe
2. Tyson
3. Moorer
4. Foreman
5. Holmes

Douglas was unmotivated, Ruiz is terrible, Mercer lost to Holmes but was a very good win.

 

Holyfield

Bowe
Tyson
Holmes
Mercer
Moorer

by far the hardest selection for me to choose so far. Foreman, Douglas, Thomas, Ruiz, all have cases.

 

A fine list indeed!

1. Bowe
2. Tyson
3. Douglas
4. Moorer
5. Dokes

 

Holyfield 5
1) Tyson
2) Bowe
3) Foreman
4) Holmes
5) Moorer

 

The Dokes fight should perhaps get a bit more love here!

 

Evander Holyfield

1----Mike Tyson
2----Riddick Bowe
3----George Foreman
4----Buster Douglas
5----Hasim Rahman

And lots of other possibles. In the hunt for the best top five, and certainly for depth of resume.
Rahman--I think Holyfield was well on his way to a decision win.

Comment--probably doesn't get the acclaim he deserves for such a great career.

 

Holyfield:

1 - Bowe
2 - Tyson
3 - Holmes (old, but beat prime version of Ray Mercer)
4 - Foreman (old, but knocked out Michael Moorer 3 years later)
5 - Moorer

Add here his wins over Douglas, Mercer, Dokes, Ruiz, Rahman and Thomas and you'll see how impressive Holyfield's resume is

 

Evander Holyfield’s 5 best wins

1 Bowe - An elite level win
2 Tyson - Past his best but still a very good win
3 Foreman - At his comeback peak and still a very good heavyweight
4 Moorer - I thought Holyfield won the first fight but the rematch was a good win for him
5 Holmes - Even at his age Holmes was dangerous. He was active and just beat an undefeated Mercer

Holyfield has a lot of depth in his record as well. You could move anyone from his 3-10 spots up or down several spots. His 6-10 would be something like:

6 Douglas
7 Mercer
8 Dokes
9 Rahman
10 Ruiz

 

Holyfield has probably 3rd best top 10 so far. A shame that he wasn't as consistent as Louis or Ali, because with less losses he could be argued as high as 3rd greatets HW ever.

 

Lol @ Ruiz being a better win than Foreman.

You rank Ruiz at 4th so you can claim Holyfield has losses to the best guys he fought. . . Douglas is probably a better win that Moorer also