Roy jones is without doubt the most talented to have won a heavyweight title belt since muhammad lol (god i've started something now!!) :-(........................after that??? For one night only Riddick Big Daddy Bowe!!??
I'd say theres very little between Lewis , Holyfield and Holmes , I think their all very good fighters who are judged very harshly in contrast with Ali in Holmes case and how good Tyson good have been (we'll never know because he imploded ) in the case of Holyfield and Lewis .
My thoughts are that these three guys are in most people's top ten list so how can they not be considered great?
Wlad did remain as Champion until 2015. Another Olympic Gold Medalist and Ukrainan is now the Heavyweight great Olexsandr Uysk. Will he clean up the divsion fully by facing his mandatories instead of fighting non boxers? Who remains for him to fight next Agit Kabayel, Moses Itauma, Murat Gassiev, Frank Sanchez?
My God! Has it really been 16 years since I did this post? During this time I have revised my opinion of Lennox. He is very much an all time great.
If you are criticizing Lennox for getting koed twice by nobodies as a knock, you don't know anything about boxing. Sometimes, you are gonna just run into some random nobody that had no business giving you problems but you did. Lennox issues comes from him fighting people out of his prime. But anyways. Evander is great as he did beat Mike Tyson while he was still dangerous and hungry, and he beat Bowe. He beat Foreman who KOed a respectable fighter to become the oldest champion at heavyweight. Evander is an ATG. Some losses is not gonna change that. Mike Tyson beat all ranked opponents in his time as champion and he is the youngest heavyweight champion of all time. Show me another fighter than in all of their defenses fought ranked opponents after Tyson? Not many. Granted he did duck Evander for 2 years, but he was set to fight him twice before jail. So no,I consider Wlad to be the last great heavyweight. 23 Title defenses is not peanuts
Lewis was the last great heavyweight champion of the 21 century. He cut his teeth during the 20th century is the reason.
For me, the last great champ was Lennox Lewis. He beat nearly every major rival of his era. Avenged his losses and unified the titles. Strong resume and got out whilst still champ..not many can say that.
I mean we are not really criticizing Louis for the same thing. And Wlad is fighting heavier opponents too so the division is more dangerous due to that. I mean Louis had 25 consecutive defenses. Larry Had 20 Wlad had 18 and after. this, you get into Muhammad Ali that had 10. So it ain't nothing. I still give Wlad his respects even though everyone else says he sucks
Heavier doesn't mean better. Being heavier could even be viewed as a detriment in terms of it's impact on mobility, speed, timing, stamina, etc. Wlad gets props aplenty on this forum. But longevity isn't everything in the 'Greatness' stakes, IMO.