Top 20 H2H heavyweights in history?

I am old enough to remember when they considered Holyfield a placeholder champ, solid, great at nothing, no overwhelming physical assets... and you know what? They were right.

 

It's one of other things. Lennox certainly didn't have anywhere the number of title fights as Wlad did. If Lennox had fought more there is a good chance he would have additional losses.

 

Vitali over Ali on the list of that one guy, we've genuinely lost it

 

Styles make fights, my boy.

 

I'd suggest thats incredibly disrespectful towards the elder statemen of the sport.

 

But against who, though?

Can you name ONE Wlad defense that you think would have been a tough night for Lennox? I could name a bunhc of those big, strong fellows Lennox beat that Wlad didn't like.

 

Well, let's start with Wlad himself. Wlad was #1 contender in 2001 & 2002, but ol' Lennox waited him out. Obviously the Vitali rematch.

There's 3 fights right there: 1) Corrie Sanders (or any highly rated southpaw) 2) Wlad 3) Vitali rematch.

 

You mean like Ray Mercer and Hasim Rahman one guy knocked Lewis out and the other arguably beat Lewis. Wlad blew both of them away like a fart in the wind. Wlad actually performed better against common opponents than Lewis. The caveat being they were older and more shop worn for Wlad. But then again some Lewis’s biggest career wins were against shopworn Holyfield and shot Tyson.

 

Haye, Chagaev, Ibragimov, Thompson, Povetkin, maybe Byrd as well.

 

Who?

 

Yeah, but as already pointed out, Lewis also had a physical advantages and took on bigger guys less often than Wlad did.

 

It's ok H2H is subjective. It this was a greatness discussion almost everyone would have it different.

 

In 2001 Lewis lost to Rahman and rematched him. Couldn't take on Wlad. In 2002 he took on Mike Tyson in the fight that everybody wanted to see. There was a short stretch between June 2002 and March 2003 where Lewis could have fought Wlad. But is it necessary waiting out? Nobody thought Sanders would beat Wlad and Lewis would probably take him on if he not had lost. Lewis ducked Byrd during that stretch tho. After Sanders beat Wlad, Lewis needed to fight his mandatory, which how we ultimately got to the Vitali fight. Lewis stopped Vitali and was 38 years old, he had every right to retire after the fight.

 

But even subjective H2H needs to be based on something. Vitali's best wins are Corrie Sanders and Sam Peter. And if we base Vitali's H2H abilities only on his LOSS to old, overweight Lewis, Rahman should be rated higher than Vitali, as he beat Lennox.

 

But Holyfield was also often rated in the Top 5 HW of all time after he beat Tyson.