Pick The Darkhorse Heavyweight GOAT.

If it's a dark horse, then my pick is Sonny Liston!
His standing is often defined by his losses to Ali, but that was by no means the best version of the man .
From 58-63 he was an absolute juggernaut , his technical skills were underrated and his power undeniable.
Look past his biggest defeat s on his record and see the sheer dominance he exerted over that period.

Anyway that's my pick for the 'Dark Horse '.

 

How about Jack Dempsey. Voted the best athlete of the first half of the 20th century. Yet rarely even makes top 10 lists anymore.
Destroyed the number 1 contender for the crown Fred Fulton in 23 seconds.
Dempsey then destroys the giant Champion Jess Willard in under 4 rounds.
Dempsey makes 5 title defenses pretty much dominating the field concluding in the sensational battle with Firpo.
Finally after 3 years off loses wide to all time p4p great Gene Tunney. In order to secure a rematch Dempsey must defeat number 2 contender Jack Sharkey fresh off a dominating win over long time number 1 rival contender Harry Wills. An over the hill Dempsey guts out an early barrage to knock out Sailor Jack in 7 rounds earning a rematch with Tunney.
In final bout of career Jack misses becoming champion a second time by a fouled up knockdown count. Could Tunney have beaten the count, I believe so, could he have survived the follow up without additional time, I’m not so sure.
If Nat Fleischer and Frances McDonough were ringside for the long count - The fight might have been called in Dempsey’s favor by the time Tunney rose and started to move around the ring.
Anyway Dempsey was a great fighter and I think revisionism has swung the pendulum a little too far in the opposite direction of his all time standing.

 

Deontay Wilder. Anyone can be KO'd

 

Nikolay Korolyov .. nine time HW champion of the USSR. Wonder how good he could have been with the right guidance as a professional.. the answer is Dempsey though. Tunney for Dark horse as the P4P GOAT. Beat Greb, Loughran & Dempsey. All 3 are among the GOATS of MW, LHW & HW.

 

Wills would be my pick...

Subject of, ostensibly, the biggest duck in history while exercising his dominance over ATG contenders.

Went 13-2-2 with Langford; 3-2-0 with McVea; 1-0-2 with Jennette and 2-1-0 with Battling Jim Johnson.

Also fought and got the better of other notables of the times:

Meehan
John Lester Johnson
Clark
Tate
Fulton
Kid Norfolk
Weinert
Firpo
Tut Jackson
Denver Ed Martin
Gunboat Smith


He had a great run of around 10 years during which he suffered only one definitive loss (to Langford) before tailing off steeply.

There's an argument to be made that Wills was the premier heavyweight of his time, but denied the stamp of authority to be declared as such.

Had universal ratings and non-prejudicial opportunities been available in Wills' time, his ledger would stack up to that of a GOAT Heavyweight, in my opinion.

 

Good thread this a few mentions I didn't expect to see.

 

Looked around there are actually quite a few people who rate him high in older threads.

But yes it's seems the main critics of John L from what I have seen are the strength of his era the records of some his opponents being unknown and the fact many of his fights were deemed exo's.

 

Holmes

 

Charles "Sonny"Liston.
Had all the attributes to be the greatest heavyweight in history.
With exception of timing.

 

My GOAT is George Foreman. But if I considered him a darkhorse he wouldn't be the GOAT.


Langford and Stribling have a good mix of longevity and P4P records. Langfords under 5'7. Stribling started as a FW.

 

To the Sullivanites. By the most minimalistic standards for "what is a title fight" Sullivan had 5 defenses. 6 if you count the draw with Cardiff as a defense.

By "standards" I mean opponents with multiple wins in professional boxing. I knew someone who was 3-0 in professional boxing. This is more wins than 31 of Sullivans opponents combined.

 

Novel heavyweight thread alert!

Interesting premise @Shay Sonya!

 

He also brought the big money into the sport and made it popular enough for things like “The Ring” magazine to exist.

 

He's criminally underrated.