Which list of top ten heavyweights is closest to yours?

Dear god what a pile of garbage.

Ali
Louis
Lewis
Holmes
Wlad
Foreman
Marciano
some other guys like Holyfield, Dempsey, Frazier, Tyson as you like them.

 

To be honest it's not that straightforward doing a top ten. The H2H factor also has to be considered to some extent. Depending on how much you weight it you might see Vitali sneak into the lower top ten and frankly a dude like Lewis might be #1. On the other hand if 'greatness' is a factor, Marciano might well rank higher. Ali might also have been lower with different judges, so there's that to consider.

 

I believe mine is closest to Ring magazine:

Louis
Ali
Holmes
Johnson
Marciano
Tyson
Lewis
Foreman
Dempsey
Frazier
Holyfield
Liston
Wlad

 

I agree with most of the placements on the ESPN Classics list. The Fight City has a top 12 I mostly agree with too.

 

Factoring H2H in would certainly alter things for sure, but I never thought they considered that much, if at all when it came to all-time ratings, but maybe I'm wrong. I thought it was more how dominant they were in their particular eras, difficulty of resume, things like that. With the H2H criteria in use, seems it would be difficult placing a guy like Sullivan.

I'd like to think that whether or not these guys were willing to fight the best contenders of their time, to take on all comers, would be looked at when coming up with these rankings. For example, any drawing of the color line, or obvious ducks would be points lost. Judging by a couple of the guys who placed #3 on those respective lists, apparently, that wasn't taken into consideration. I mean, with Sullivan @ #3 and Ali #5, George damn sure didn't.

 

Nice post. The vast majority of lists seem to be resume based with the odd one H2H only and some with a blend of both. McGrains lists have a little bit of H2H blended in and would surely be the most comprehensive ever. Some of the old timers seem to be H2H at times as they say X would have beaten them all. I completely agree about color lines and taking on all comers and the biggest threats being important. Louis and Hagler would be great examples of long reigns taking on all comers and the best available, Dempsey and Holmes not so much obviously. Most would be in between.

I reckon you have it sorted.

 

Boxing News comes the closest to mine.

 

Ali
Louis
Lewis
Holmes
Marciano
Foreman
Frazier
Johnson
Holyfield
Tyson

 

The Ring and Boxing News are the closest. I would exchange at least Dempsey in both, but otherwise not bad.

 

Yeah, Foreman's list was a bit funny. Despite paying lip service to how great a man and athlete Ali was, he certainly still holds some grudge or rivalry there.

There was a tilt towards old timers in general in the lists, but that's usually the case. Was Wlad included in any of them? And I saw Tyson missing in at least one as well.

 

Yes, the criteria for each list would be different depending on who's making it. If H2H is a big factor, then I'd agree with @BCS8 that it would elevate Lewis quite a bit. Without it, he's still top 10 I suppose, but somewhere on the back end. It would completely shuffle these lists depending on how much it's factored in.

Without any stated criteria for how they're ranking the fighters on these lists, I'm not sure which I agree with the most. Some are wildly different, and I don't know how they came to the conclusions that they did. I haven't tried to put a list together myself, or put a whole lot of thought into what the most important factors to consider should be. At a glance, there's not a single list above that looks spot on to me. I haven't seen McGrain's, but wouldn't mind taking a look.

BTW, I'd say Ali deserves mention for being willing to take on all comers. An awful lot of HOFers on that resume.

 

A great many of us have Lewis # and #4 based on resume. To each their own of course.

Yes Ali absolutely. When you fight as many contenders as he did over as long a period as he did you deserve credit. Some will point out a little crack here and there but when everything is taken into consideration his record is insane.

 

McGrain

Wlad has probably moved up i'd guess.

1. Ali
2. Louis
3. Marciano
4. Lewis
5. Frazier
6. Foreman
7. Holmes
8. Liston
9. Johnson
10. Tyson

20. Jersey Joe Walcott
19. James J. Corbett
18. Floyd Patterson
17. Ezzard Charles
16. Wladimir Klitschko
15. Sam Langford
14. James J. Jeffries
13. Jack Dempsey
12. Harry Wills
11. Evander Holyfield