Who’s the greatest Light Heavyweight H2H of all time? (Poll)

Well this is it! I get nostalgia is a thing and we do all tend to look at things with Rose tinted glasses at times, but there appears to be a surge of recency bias recently, especially due to the emergence of some great Eastern talent

If there is a poll of the top 5 All time on the main forum this would be the result

1. Usyk
2. Lomachenko
3. GGG
4. Beterbiev
5. Bivol

Ali, Robinson etc may get put in the lower half of a top 10 behind koklaev

 

Hi Buddy.
Excellent and detailed breakdown of the contenders, I would find it hard to argue against all and any of your points, ever so slight caveat would be the placings of Moore and Foster, personally I would have them in reverse order to your ratings, but not by much, and would say there is not much in it, both atg LHWs, from different eras.
As you do quite consistently, a very precise and informative post, that highlights your insight into our beloved sport.
stay safe dmt, chat soon.

 

Its even worse on youtube. I have seen youtube content creators claim Dubois is better than Ali using "film studies" to show how Dubois is better than Ali and George Foreman.

 

Really?
There are great fighters of every generation but Dubois is not better than those 2 lol

I can entertain Usyk of course, he is proven great, but that's ridiculous

 

The guy is called fightfilm i think. He has a few thousand subsribers on youtube and he does these "film studies". I tried politely debating him but i felt like i was talking to a dog and not an actual human being so i gave up. He was deadly serious

 

6 years ago I was in my job, we had casual students helping over the summer. One of the guys was 21 and he happened to say he was at the fight of the 2 greatest heavyweights in history

I said Ali never fought Louis, or Lewis, but maybe he was referring to Ali vs Foreman or Frazier and perhaps he used a time machine?

No, he was referring to Aj beating Klitschko at Wembley and called them the Goats. Ignorance is bliss, so rather than educate I asked his thoughts on the atmosphere and fight.

 

It's H2H though, resume isn't really a factor, it's just a question of eye-test really.

 

Charles and Tunney

 

charles with rjj a close second.

 

I get all that for a discussion on greatest LHW based on resume, but the topic is Head to Head. Gibbons showed prowess above and below 175 which tells me whatever he had was not based on careful matchmaking, weight bullying, carrying power only in a lower division but skill and talent that transcends all those variables. Dude lost 5 times, once against a heavyweight tiger in Dempsey who still had to low blow him into submission (with help from friend and ref Daugherty), the other was in his final fight against an up and coming heavyweight Tunney. The third and fourth were close affairs against GOAT claimant Greb, who he in turn defeated twice. And the final was against the very capable Miske, who he was beating handily, but fouled. No one really ever figured out the guy on even terms so far as I can see it, even terms being 175 and prime.

 

The last time I chimed in on the best light heavyweight poll, I got banned for a while.

So, let's just say, any poll that includes Ezzard Charles should include Floyd Patterson.

Patterson fought half his fights at light heavyweight. Patterson demolished Archie Moore when Moore was the dominant 175 pound champ and the clear #1 heavyweight after Marciano retired, while Floyd was the #1 light heavy contender. Just wiped Moore out. A rematch wasn't necessary or even asked for.

And, like Floyd, Charles never won the light heavy title, either.

And, since it's a head-to-head poll, I'd take a prime Floyd Patterson head-to-head over anyone on that list. Moore, Foster, Spinks, Jones, Charles ... all of them.

I'll stop there.

 

Ah, apologies, I missed the H2H part of the thread title. My fault.

 

No problem. I always enjoy your posts.

 

Charles should not be in this poll and Bivins and Lloyd Marshall should be.

 

I think that if you are talking about the H2H Light heavyweight GOAT, as opposed to the best in the history of the division, then how they performed at heavyweight becomes a factor.

You have to look at how they did at light heavy primarily, but also how they did when they stepped up.

One name springs to mind here.

Ezzard Charles.

Prevailed over an era populated buy great light heavyweights, then managed a significant title run at heavyweight.

If it is a head to head question, then this is probably your man.