I was working on my top 25 HWs ranking and I was wondering if anybody else had a top 25 ranking and what it was.
01 – Muhammad Ali 02 – Joe Louis 03 – Rocky Marciano 04 – Lennox Lewis 05 – Joe Frazier 06 – Larry Holmes 07 – Evander Holyfield 08 – Mike Tyson 09 – George Foreman 10 – Sonny Liston 11 – Jack Johnson 12 – Jim Jeffries 13 – Harry Wills 14 – Wladimir Klitschko 15 – Jack Dempsey 16 – Sam Langford 17 – Floyd Patterson 18 – Ezzard Charles 19 – Jersey Joe Walcott 20 – Ken Norton 21 – Max Schmeling 22 – Vitali Klitschko 23 – Riddick Bowe 24 – James J Corbett 25 – Gene Tunney Something like that. Fury and Usyk will both be in this argument when they retire retire.
Here is a list i roughly cobbled together (does not include any current fighters) 1 Muhammad Ali 2 Joe Louis 3 Larry Holmes 4 Lennox Lewis 5 Joe Johnson(Jack) 6 George Foreman 7 Rocky Marciano 8 Sonny Liston 9 Mike Tyson 10 Joe Frazier 11 Evander Holyfield 12 Jack Dempsey 13 Wladimir Klitschko 14 Ezzard Charles 15 Gene Tunney 16 J.J.Jeffries 17 Vitali Klitschko 18 Henry Wills 19 Riddick Bowe 20 Sam Langford 21 Max Schmelling 22 Floyd Patterson 23 Jersey Joe Walcott 24 Bob Fitzsimmons 25 Ken Norton
Here is my chronological top 25 Langford Wills Fulton Miske Dempsey Tunney Loughran Schmeling Braddock Tommy Farr John Henry Lewis Max Baer Louis Buddy Baer Sonny Liston Ali Frazier Norton Foreman Jimmy Young Lyle Larry Holmes Riddick Bowe Lennox Lewis Wladimir Klitschko Every time I do this a few shift in and out like Moorer, Gibbons and Tyson. Can probably find an older list I've made and find some contradictions. Don't think I put Buddy Baer in last time. The big issue with putting Tyson in isn't Tyson it's that I'd have to put Holyfield in and I'm not doing that.
Here is the list I made sorting the lineal champions a while ago. Ali Louis Holmes Lewis Wlad Tyson Foreman Frazier Holyfield Usyk Marciano Liston Johnson Dempsey Jeffries Charles Patterson Fury Moorer Tunney Walcott Schmeling Burns Sullivan Michael Spinks Looks OK to me, but would need to think about which non-lineal champions I should add. Langford would definitely be out there. Perhaps Vitali too. Ken Norton maybe?
1 Joe Louis 2 Muhammad Ali 3 Rocky Marciano 4 Wladimir Klitschko 5 Jack Johnson 6 Jack Dempsey 7 Lennox Lewis 8 Larry Holmes 9 George Foreman 10 Mike Tyson 11 Joe Frazier 12 Evander Holyfield 13 Vitali Klitschko 14 James J. Jeffries 15 Sonny Liston 16 Gene Tunney 17 Floyd Patterson 18 Ezzard Charles 19 Max Schmeling 20 Jersey Joe Walcott 21 Harry Wills 22 Sam Langford 23 Max Baer 24 Jim Corbett 25 John L. Sullivan
As expected Ali and Louis ranked top 2 but after that no consistency with the rankings from 3 all the way down.
1. Ali 2. Louis 3. Lewis 4. Wlad 5. Tyson 6. Holmes 7. Marciano 8. Frazier 9. Holyfield 10. Usyk 11. Fury 12. Vitali 13. Foreman 14. Wills 15. Dempsey 16. Wilder 17. Liston 18. Charles 19. Bowe 20. Joshua 21. Schmeling 22. Witherspoon 23. Thomas 24. Weaver 25. Norton Skipping a bunch of early 1900s guys on purpose bc I don't want to think about it. In the twenties, there are tons of guys with roughly equal resumes too.