Best ever long time HW contender?

James Tillis and Ron Lyle come to mind also Bert Cooper he came within a whisker of winning world title twice.

 

the Statement was made about Woodcock,

Mills was a 'by-product' of British Bigmen Hopes and was cited as such as long back as 1941, in fact in early 1944 he, Mills with Broadribb and Solomons, they, Challenged Joe Louis... Mills was 'an extra' horse in the race.

Woodcock was the HW Contender and the English Bigman desperate need/hope, which of course was what I stated - Woodcock.

Welcome back,

 

In the 90s that belt didn’t mean anything

 

Sorry I misconstrued it.Thank you!

 

Sam.Langford

 

Wills
Moore
Loughran
Langford
Povetkin
My top picks

 

Yeah I know, but still.

 

Damn I forgot him! I have the book about him which I got free because back then , I was "press". I believe in many other eras, he'd been one of the greatest Heavyweight champions of the world.

 

There should be two categories to this question.

1. Best long term heavyweight contender.
2. Best long term heavyweight contender, who could not be denied a title shot due to his race, with no further justification.

 

Yes indeed!

And you know, we have to consider that Marvis Frazier, flawed as he might have been, only lost to two of the greatest Heavyweight champions of all time and hall of famers. Renaldo Snipes was real good too. that right hand still makes Holmes dizzy!

Although I would not consider him great, Alfredo Evangelista was pretty decent. He too lost to two all time greats (in fact one of them the greatest) for the world title and he beat Snipes.

More recently Arthur Spilska gave Wilder a heck of a fight. Luis Ortiz is an exciting, hard punching boxer with many good wins to his credit and held an interim title which I really dont consider a real one cause it was a WBA "regular" interim title so you know. When it comes down to Hispanic world Heavyweight champions, I only consider the Ruizes' as genuine. (John got his title because Lennox did not want to face him, so to me that does count, even through Lennox would have beaten him by round two)

There was also Tom Sharkey....

And talking about the British, Don Cockell was a great one.

 

as a fan of both Bruno and Tim.. i think the ending was a true battering.. Bruno looked as if a ton of bricks had collapsed on him

 

Sam Langford, Sam McVea, Joe Jeannette, Harry Wills, all come to mind.

 

Orlin Norris was a long time heavyweight contender..... not the best for sure but had talent

 

Just for fun I'll mention Paolino Uzcudun, Johnny Risko, and Nino Valdes as "honorable mention" candidates.

 

I hate when people list twenty guys instead of one. Kind of limits participation