Which Heavyweight Is Possibly Overrated Because Of Nostalgia?

Fury would have the legend as Boxing's Paul Bunyan if not for the internet.

 

I wanted to say it, and as I was scrolling, I'd hope someone would take the dip before me!

For someone who sits at the very top, in the sports history, he is regularly not considered the best P4P, or even in his own weight class. Boxing doesn't feel like a sport sometimes, with everything that goes alongside it.

You forget in all the build up, politics and fall outs, the nostalgia, etc, that it is just 12 rounds (15 and + back in the days) of competitive sport. And because of that, the reason Ali is considered the best, is because he epitomised everything that came with the sport.

And tbf, the run he did have at heavyweight, was pretty solid, if only he didn't have those two comeback fights though!

 

The IBRO had him 7th all time in 2005 and 13th in 2019. Well over 100 years later and he's still highly rated and well regarded.

 

I think that's a bit crude. Jeff was a good fighter and very athletic. But I do think he was highly untested by any quality heavyweights around his own size. Had he fought Johnson while he was active we would have more answers. Unfortunately we dont.

 

I've never even heard of them.

 

I hate to say it but Ali. Very formidable heavyweight and on his best night, potential beater of any heavyweight in history. But I would say his opponents get more so overrated simply because they fought him. In the 60s for the most part, he was a giant as far as size goes. At 6'3 210-215, he was huge for the 1960s but no one accuses him of fighting "cruiserweights" or "blown up light heavyweights". Lennox Lewis would be castigated without mercy if he fought Henry Cooper or Zora Folley sized fighters. And if 1965 Ali had beaten Hasim Rahman or Frans Botha, we would speak of them as fighters only Ali could have ever beaten.

The 60s get spoken of as a great era because they contained men like Zora Folley or Cleveland Williams or George Chuvalo. They were good world class contenders, but their greatest achievement was being Ali opponents. Listons opponents also get overrated since Liston lost to Ali and they beat some of the same men.

But if you took Zora Folley and put him as a 1937 Joe Louis opponent, he would just be looked at as a good contender. And if you put Max Schmeling as a 1967 Muhammad Ali opponent, he would be rated as one of the backbones of a strong era.

 

The International boxing research organization?

 

As others posters have stated, literally all HW Champs are sorta overrated by fans and pundits.

However, some of the worst cases of overrating:
-Ali
-Louis
-Holi
-Marciano
- Wlad

 

Vits is far more overrated than Wlad considering the fighters he actually beat.

 

I think Ali's opponents get overrated more so. Especially his 64-67 championship opponents and by extension, Listons opponents. Ask yourself, was Folley better than say Joey Maxim? You can argue on the margins who was better. But if they both met in their primes, they are more than capable of beating one another.

 

The worst nostalgia of all is going to be for Usyk. Many of us were wee babes in our little swaddlings when he came in with his sweet mouth and his slick, urban Ukrainian style, hopping around to the strange rhythms in his head.

 

Richard Dunn is vastly underrated, almost to the point of it being gratuitous if not downright criminal.

 

Liston's best opponents.
Bethea 204lbs
DeJohn 202lbs
Valdes 211lbs
Williams 210 ibs
Williams 215lbs
Folley 198 1/2lbs
Machen196lbs
Patterson189lbs
Patterson194 1/2lbs
Ali 210 1/2lbs
Ali 206lbs
Zech 226lbs
Johnson 2001/2lbs
Clark 215lbs
Rischer 200lbs
Lincoln 2091/2lbs
Martin199lbs
Can we now see an end to this canard?

 

Right!

 

How can nostalgia factor in for an active fighter T?