How many heavyweights could have beat Caracas Foreman?

You seem to have lost the thread of the discussion.

Nobody has to prop Neumann up because he didn't get two cracks at the World Title, as did Thompson.

And, he wouldn't be suggested as an entry on, then divisional champ, Muhammad Ali's list of top wins, would he now?

 

Yes, but Leon Spinks got a crack and won.

 

He was dangerous early on, as per, i've never disputed this and always credit George accordingly. But he was still always open for counters- and leads- when stalking down an opponent. I agree with this but still, didn't Ali win the round on 2 or 3 of the cards? Then again, no surprise there!

 

Alfredo Evangelista got two! He must have been great.

 

And? This^ doesn't really change the points made, does it?

 

Evangelista wouldn't feature on Holmes' and Ali's top wins lists either.

 

Ali wanted to impose some of his own will on him early. Getting cornered and cut off quite a bit didn't hurt that desire as he fired off sizzling right leads at various intervals, walking George onto them. Foreman shook these off despite some of them being solid punches. Ali really put some intent on them.

 

Well I'd hope not, but getting two cracks at the title and not been that good isn't exclusive to modern day boxing.

 

Thereby justifying both his ranking and his shot against Ali.

 

But Thompson has been mentioned as one of Wlad's best wins in this thread.

And the truth is, he might well be.

I've not argued that case.

 

It could also show how terrible the heavyweight champion was at that point.

 

Fair enough.

It seems that one or two posters are on the wind-up with some of this, surely?

 

Johnny Paycheck would have had a decent chance of winning the title that night.

 

You never can tell. I'd happily read their recantations, though.

According to @Cojimar 1946 : "As to [Wlad's] best wins probably Povetkin Byrd Pulev maybe after that Thompson"

And Thompson was good, apparently, because he beat Luan Krasniqi ( @NoNeck ), and was better than the version of Frazier that Foreman faced ( @Seamus ).

There's a fine line between Trolling and Extreme Opinion, I guess.


Who would you rate as Wlad's top-5 wins?

 

Off the top of my head, Wlad’s best opponents he beat were as follows (in no order):
Povetkin
Haye
Byrd
Pulev
Iggy
Chagaev
Peter 1
Jennings
Chambers

The ten spot belongs to either Brock or Thompson. Probably not the Brewster rematch. Thompson wasn’t exactly a top win, but he could fight better than all but a small sampling of Foreman’s 70s opponents. Might beat Young or Lyle, for instance.