Question mark as it's still very much a WIP and some on-the-job feedback would be useful. Some base rules: no prime, active fighters. H2H does not factor in. At all. I'll give fighters credit for however I scored some or their fights. For instance; Tua > Ike, due to me scoring their encounter 115-113 Tua. And it's my criteria, so I'm playing fast and loose with things. If I'm inconsistent, there's probably some form of rationale behind it. There were a lot of picks here that I really had to check my biases for. Some of the guys who just missed the cut: Cleveland Williams, Marvin Hart, Carl Morris, John Ruiz, Ray Mercer, Ernie Shaaf, Ernie Terrell &c. Edit: This content is protected #50. Greg Page #49. Michael Moorer #48. Lamon Brewster #47. Gerrie Coetzee #46. Sam McVey #45. Hasim Rahman #44. Fred Fulton #43. Buster Douglas #42. Gene Tunney #41. Mike Weaver #40. Pinklon Thomas #39. Joe Jeannette #38. Tommy Loughran #37. Primo Carnera #36. Michael Spinks #35. Jerry Quarry #34. Jimmy Young #33. Rex Layne #32. Eddie Machen #31. Archie Moore #30. Alexander Povetkin #29. Vitali Klitschko #28. Bob Fitzsimmons #27. Ingo Johansson #26. Sam Langford #25. Tim Witherspoon #24. Ken Norton #23. Chris Byrd #22. Harry Wills #21. Max Baer #20. Jack Sharkey #19. Jersey Joe Walcott #18. Max Schmeling #17. Jack Johnson #16. James J Jeffries #15. Riddick Bowe #14. Jack Dempsey #13. Floyd Patterson #12. Ezzard Charles #11. Sonny Liston #10. Mike Tyson #9. Rocky Marciano #8. Joe Frazier #7. Wladimir Klitschko #6. Evander Holyfield #5. George Foreman #4. Lennox Lewis #3. Larry Holmes #2. Joe Louis #1. Muhammad Ali
Meh, I don't think five fights at the weight when only two have genuine significance and they were vs a guy who was shot, old, fat and inactive. And one of them was still controversial. I find him very overrated on the whole. I'll take Spinks over him every day.
Good list. Its very hard to do a top 50 so commendable effort on your part. I might do a top 50 someday myself but will need to think about it. I like Tim Witherspoon in your top 25. I am a fan of his, i am glad you rate him highly. His powerful overhand right and his crab defense made him a formidable fighter IMO. Moore over Langford is something that i would respectfully disagree with. Yes, there is less footage of Langford but we do have some decent footage of him. Langford has a couple of wins over your #22 ranked Wills. Even though Langford lost the rivialry to Wills, he does have wins over the #22 ranked guy and i think Langford's win over Wills is better than any of Moore's heavyweight wins. I am a big Moore fan but would rank Langford ahead at heavyweight. I dislike the way Wladamir and his excessive clinching tactics. His chin is also suspect. I can see why you rank him #7 and he did make a lot of defenses. I wouldn't have him in my top 10 but i am biased. I rate Liston very highly but i can see why some people would rank him low. Very good effort though. I am glad you rate Schmeling and Witherspoon highly.
I knew you'd say that, I saw the exact same comment on a SuzieQ thread from two years ago. Page was a little too inconsistent on the whole to be considered IMO, and his top wins aren't good enough to make up for that like Risko's were. But I'm not against Page creeping in over Tua.
Good on you for having a go at a top 50 mate. Highly agreeable to Page replacing Tua!!! Now that's a list!
Very nice overall! Two things stood out-If you are considering resume & not head to head & thus have many old timers ranked highly, I agree that Langford is too low. Also if a fighter if denied shots due to something like race you need to extrapolate about how he is lilkely to perform. An given how dominant he was-especially considering how few rounds he ever lost-don't you think you have Vitali too low? Edit: even without considering H 2 H favoring a giant modern fighter or longevity or consistency or his amateur, kickboxing or karate career...I cannot see how you have him outside of the top 20. His success & the record of his opposition is deeply impressive. Although I do think you shoul consider consistency & longevity when considering greatness, even if you weaigh it less than some. 28 is just way too low for such a successful champion.
Men like Ernie Terrell, Zora Foley, Tommy Loughran, Harold Johnson, def deserve spots over the likes of Brewster, Moorer, Risko, Coetzee.
I think there might actually be a decent case for Young Stribling ahead of Tommy Burns. I don't think Risko deserves to be there.
Schmeling below Bowe is a big no for me. I also don't see much of a case for Ingo and Byrd over Fitzsimmons, but I rate his era higher than most. Other than that it's very good list and I actually really like your top 10. It's very close to mine actually. I love that you included Tommy Loughran here - one of the most underrated fighters ever.
