Top 10 heavyweights divided into two distinct timespan

It gives me a headache in all honesty trying to rank fighters there's so many different criteria's

Do you rank longevity and title defences ?

Do you rank more high quality wins without the filler ?

It's all subjective I think the only thing we are sure of is that Ali and Louis are number 1 & 2 and are head and shoulders above the rest.

 

I rank longevity and title defenses, absolutely, but as someone on here once said, "boxing is a not a statistical sport." The #1 category at the end of the day is who you beat.

Its basically...

1. Who you beat

2. Everything else
Title defenses
Overall wins
KO percentage
Perceived skills
overall signifigance/legend.
Records
Longevity
Innovation

Could probably come up with quite a few more.

And, in the negative...

Losses
Ducks
Embarrassing defeats

 

John Henry Lewis? Not sure I'd use him to argue Louis' resume. Dude was a Light-Heavyweight fighting the very last bout of a 117 fight career. His vision was impaired, if not totally gone, in his left eye. Where do you suppose that version of Lewis fits in among the guys Holmes defended against?

Conn? He weighed in at 174 lbs for Louis...a literal LH. He didn't have a ton of fights at Heavyweight. Bob Foster probably ranks higher than Conn on most all-time LH rankings I would guess. I don't recall anyone ever pointing to Foster as an example of one of Ali or Frazier's great wins. Not sure why we need to do that here with Conn, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Conn was a very good fighter though, just kind of small.

Schmeling was undoubtedly an excellent win, though I'm not sure there's a huge difference in quality between Schmeling and Norton. Louis made short work of Schmeling at least, while Holmes barely got by Norton, so advantage Louis considering that.

Baer? Again, how much of a gap is there between the version of Baer who fought Louis, and the version of Witherspoon who fought Holmes, especially if it's true that Baer's right hand was damaged coming into the fight?

I don't think the gap in resumes is as big as you think it is, but hey, that just my opinion.

 

They are all great fighter, and you can add Bivins.

Before we disparage LHWs, let's remember that Holmes lost to one.

 

Both Bivins and Louis were past it by the time they met.

I'd say that between Louis facing Conn and Holmes facing Spinks, Holmes was way further along in relation to his prime than Louis was vs. Conn. Plus, Spinks was a legit Heavyweight when he stepped into the ring @ 6'2 1/2" 200 lbs., and seemed to have decent power for the division. Actually, both Holmes & Louis had their title runs ended by former Light Heavyweights, both around the age of 36.

 

Norton, Holmes best victory, was a months or so off 35, so...

 

I actually agree with the bolded.

 

I missed this thread last week due to personal difficultys. So heres mine.

Chronological order. I did a top 12 because it was so close.


1)
Langford
Wills
Tommy Gibbons
Fulton
Miske
Dempsey
Tunney
Loughran
Braddock
Tommy Farr
John Henry Lewis
Louis

2)
Liston
Ali
Frazier
Norton
Foreman
Jimmy Young
Lyle
Holmes
Moorer
Bowe
Lennox Lewis
Wladimir Klitschko

I left out Tyson because he lost to Holyfield and I'm not including Holyfield and they are kind of a package deal.

 

1892 to 1958:

1. Louis
2. Marciano
3. Johnson
4. Jeffries
5. Wills
6. Dempsey
7. Charles
8. Langford
9. Tunney
10. Patterson

Retired fighters only since 1959:

1. Ali
2. Holmes
3. Lewis
4. Wlad
5. Liston
6. Tyson
7. Foreman
8. Frazier
9. Holyfield
10. Bowe

 

1892-1958
1 Joe Louis
2 Jack Dempsey
3 Sam Langford
4 Rocky Marciano
5 Max Schmeling
6 Jack Johnson
7 J.J. Walcott
8 Floyd Patterson
9 Ezzard Charles
10 J.J. Jeffries

1959-2025
1 Ali
2 Larry Holmes
3 George Foreman
4 Sonny Liston
5 Joe Frazier
6 Evander Holyfield
7 Mike Tyson
8 Lenox Lewis
9 Wladimir Klitschko
10 Riddick Bowe