Who were the top 5 heavyweights of the 90`s?

Foreman is an ATG despite ur hatred for the man. Nobody and I mean nobody will prob ever reproduce what that man accomplished. Say what u want but u can’t take away his accomplishments

 

You've gone completely off topic because you're a fanboy. This is about who the top 5 in the 90s were, not who was the oldest.

 

H2h top 5 might be
Lewis
Holyfield
Tyson
Vitali
Ibeabuchi

 

There is a huge number of lists in the 90s.

 

Lewis
Holyfield
.
Mercer
Foreman
Ike
Bowe
Tua/Morrison
McCall

 

I was thinking that too. That's a huge scalp. Norton gets a ton of credit for beating Ali but McCall seems to get none for his equally impressive victory -- he fought a consensus top 5 ATG (might even be the consensus #3) and knocked him out. That ought to count for something.

 

Difficult question, in some respects.

The top four for me are clearly Lewis, Holyfield, Tyson and Bowe.

They were the four involved in the biggest heavyweight PPV fights of the decade. Holyfield-Bowe 1, 2 & 3. Tyson-Holyfield 1 & 2. Lewis-Holyfield 1 & 2. Tyson-Ruddock 1 & 2. Bowe-Golota 2. Tyson-McNeeley/Bruno 2/Seldon.

The fifth spot could be filled by any number of people.

If we're talking about who were the biggest stars, other than those guys, it would be between George Foreman and Tommy Morrison, who also fought in a PPV against each other.

Foreman was the bigger name from years back, but so many of his fights, particularly later, ended in controversial decisions in bouts most fans thought he lost.

In addition to his fights, Tommy Morrison was a huge mainstream sports celebrity in his own right. Morrison co-starred in Rocky V. And his diagnosis with HIV in 1996 made him one of the most well-known people in the Western Hemisphere with HIV. His press conference announcing he had it and that he was retiring was global news.

Ray Mercer entered the decade positioned to be a major player. He got two PPVs out of the gate - against Damiani and in another scoring a legendary KO of Morrison. But he was supposed to fight a WBO mandatory against Moorer (a fight he probably would've won in hindsight), vacated that strap, and then fought his third headlining PPV against Holmes and lost. And he never really recovered from that. He ended up giving Holyfield and Lewis tough fights. But they were surrounded by two bad fights against Ferguson and another with Marion Wilson.

Michael Moorer and Buster Douglas both won the heavyweight title, but Buster was more of a one-hit wonder in the 90s. Moorer wasn't really a dominant heavyweight at all in the 90s. He shouldn't have even won the fight with Holyfield if a judge had properly scored the round Evander dropped Moorer in 10-8 instead of 10-9. And then got embarrassed losing in his first defense.

Razor Ruddock was a big deal the first couple years, then fizzled. Ibeabuchi was a rising star for a couple years at the end, but fizzled.

Tua and Golota both came up at the same time. Golota surpassed Tua in terms of star power with the Bowe fights. (Golota ended up getting four title shots to Tua's one.)

In terms of star power (fame), success in the era and just how much prefight excitement and "hype" one of their fights typically generated when it was announced, I'd probably say the FIVE BIGGEST (Heavyweight) NAMES of the 90s were:
1. Lewis
2. Holyfield
3. Tyson
4. Bowe
5. Morrison

(Mercer probably comes in a close sixth.)

You hear those names, and I just think '90s heavyweight boxing.' That was their era. They owned. it.

* Their fights.
* Their brutal KO wins.
* Their shocking or brutal KO losses.
* Their PPV events. (Fan Man, Ear Biting, Riots.)
* Their drama outside the ring (Tyson, Bowe and Morrison all went to jail that decade ... Morrison got HIV, Holyfield had a bad heart, retired and came back.)

They made it all "must see" TV.

 

You didn’t even mention McCall *facepalm*

 

McCall had a respectable record in the 90's.

He went 20-4 in that decade.

He beat - Lewis (1-1), Seldon, Damani, a 6-0 Maskaev and a 17-5 Jesse Ferguson.

He lost to - Lewis (1-1), Norris, Tucker and Bruno.

That's a decent record. He probably is underrated in the 90's. You're putting a huge amount of emphasis on that right hand that landed on Lennox to debate him as a top 5 HW for the decade, but from an objective perspective, yeah, his record in the 90's is ok.

 

He beat Holmes. You skipped that. Lewis, Holmes and the others on a ledger is worth the five spot. If his win over Lewis were luck, idk what Foreman’s win over Moorer or Moorer’s win over Holyfield were.

How about Holyfield’s biggest win including Fan Man?

 

Apologies, you're correct, I did miss his 115-114, 114-113 , 115-112 win over a 45 year old Holmes. Please add that to the notable wins he had in his 20-4 record during the 90's.
Do you think Norris, Tucker or Bruno have an argument for top 5 in the 90's?

 

Tucker was ducked by Foreman, so he has no case for top 5.

Norris is top 5.

Do you think Briggs is top 5 in the 90s?

 

I went with the guys who were the biggest names of that particular era.

McCall wasn't a major player in the decade. He was kinda big for a year, nothing more, really.

Even when he was briefly champ, the biggest star at McCall-Holmes was the recently-released-from-prison Tyson, who sat ringside.

Despite having belts, you saw how far down the ladder Seldon and McCall where from being big names in the aport when Tyson took a seat at ringside.

Lewis, Bowe, Holyfield, Tyson and Morrison were real boxing mainstream stars in the 90s.

 

Lewis
Holyfield
Bowe
Tyson - Still beat up a lot of guys ..
Ike - I know he's a leap but he beat a prime Tua and Byrd and showed so much talent ... we know he had a terrific chin, great stamina and could be patient and KO a cutie like Byrd in a way no one else ever did ...

 

Nah, Briggs was a dangerous fighter, but I don't think he beat the opposition in his 31-2-1 record in the 90's to rank top 5 in that decade.

I think Lewis, Holyfield, Bowe and Moorer are the top 4 HW's of the 90's based solely on their records in that decade. #5 is pretty open in my opinion, there are numerous candidates, imo, including:

• McCall - I've already given a brief appraisal of his 20-4 record in the 90's in this thread. You have a point that his win resume gives him a credible argument for the 5th "greatest" HW of the 90's. But his quit job vs Lewis, plus losses to CW Norris, 33 year old Tucker and Bruno, suggest he wasn't the 5th best.
• Ibeabuchi - 20-0 with wins over Byrd and Tua.
• Tua - 35-1 only loss a close decision to Ike. Wins over Rahman, Maskaev, Ruiz, Izon and Wilson (1st guy to beat Briggs).
• Vitali - his win resume of Hide, Sullivan, Billups and Ribalta doesn't justify top 5 for the decade, but if you extrapolate dominance to determine who were the best 5, he has an argument
• Grant - 31-0 with wins over Sanders, Golata, Izon, Gonzalez, Savarese and Sullivan.
• Golata - 34-4, would have been 32-2 if he had resisted hitting Bowe in the nuts, and in addition to 2 x wins over Riddick, he'd have had wins over Sanders, Witherspoon, Ferguson and Nicholson.
• Tyson - 9-3 with wins over Ruddock x 2, Bruno, Seldon and Botha

Dependent on your perspective arguments can be made for Foreman, Morrison and Mercer, too, though strictly limited to their records in the 90's, they're a bit behind.

My conclusion is - 1) Tbf to you, strictly on win resume, McCall has an argument fir top 5 in the 90's; and 2) You're putting a huge amount of stock in the 1-punch, stopped on his feet, pre-peak, TKO over Lewis, to consider Mercer had a top 5 overall record in the 90's.