Just to be sure I haven't misunderstood: You feel that Jose Ribalta and Jesse Ferguson are good examples of "great fighters over 200lbs" beaten by Holmes?
We’re comparing them at their best, no? Following this logic, Foreman outranks Ali based on the fact he was winning the Heavyweight championship of the world at an age when Ali was a long-gone non-event.
I would fancy Holmes in this but with no great certainty and that's why this is such a fascinating fantasy match up. I give Larry the edge in heart and that's why I lean his way.
We're comparing them, not prime but from beggining to the end, and Holmes resume was better than Liston's. Foreman can't outrank Ali even with his 2nd run.
Holmes fought 23 rounds with Shavers, almost 69 minutes, Shavers won about 1 minute out of those 69 minutes. Holmes dominated Shavers except for the knockdown. Shavers was never in either fight and neither fight was competitive. I don't remember exactly, but I think the Snipes fight was also one sided? Mike Weaver was an excellent fighter, I can't think of many fighters who wouldn't have a tough fight with him.
If you believe the rematch was genuine your a fool As if someone who routinely sparred foreman would get the laid out by a single Ali punch
Classic. Unable to defend your original claim that they were "great fighters", you swerve into a totally different (and highly debatable) claim that they were better than two random opponents from the tail-end of Liston's career. Ribalta and Ferguson were unranked, with multiple other losses around the same time they faced Holmes. Decent wins for an old man, but great fighters? Not really.
Still better than DeJohn and past prime Valdes. Ranked or not they were greater fighters and Holmes beat more good fighters, case closed.
Unfortunately, as we can’t debate in person, passion can come across unintentionally as aggression. I dispute that anyone on that list was a great fighter, that’s all.