As of right now: 1. Valuev 2. Ibragimov 3. Briggs 4. Dimitrenko 5. Krasniqui 6. Brewster 7. Fury 8. Toney 9. Holyfield 10. Maskaev
I seriously think this will just start a huge debate, obviously, but I'll post my top 10, and then I probably won't look at this thread again, lol. I have recently compiled a top-25 actually, but after you get past the top 10 (which is hard enough) going through 25 is pretty hard. It's hard for me to rank both the people just moving up (Haye), people who have been inactive, and people who shouldn't be fighting anymore but have narrowly just won a title (holyfield) Anyways, I'll post my entire top-25, I may defend it slightly, but I know most of these arguments turn in to "your mama" type debates. Anyway Here goes. Ranking Name 1 Wladimir Klitschko 2 Vitali Klitschko 3 Alexander Povetkin 4 Nikolai Valuev 5 Eddie Chambers 6 Chris Arreola 7 Ruslan Chagaev 8 David Haye 9 Alexander Dimitrenko 10 Denis Boystov 11 Oleg Maskaev 12 Vladimir Virchis 13 Brian Minto 14 Evander Holyfield 15 Sam Peter 16 John Ruiz 17 Tony Thompson 18 James Toney 19 Fres Oquendo 20 Ray Austin 21 Kevin Johnson 22 Odlanier Solis 23 Francesco Pianeta 24 Albert Sosnowski 25 Shane Cameron
Beside Wlad (#1), Vitaly (#2) and Valuev (#3) we have the following boxers who are .... highly active in the ring by fighting at least once per year: Holyfield, Chambers or .... these who at least are making strong verbal noise in the media: Ruiz, Haye or .... who are trying to be prepared and be ready: Povetkin, Arreola .....who are still pleased to the media news: Golota
There are some god awful names in these top 25 list. Pianeta, Sosnowski, even in these terrible times are there not better fighters than that on the circuit? Cripes. Klitschko Klitschko Valuev Povetkin Chambers Is a reasonably solid top 5, in these sense, I cannot make a case for other inclusions, but beyond that.....hell, its anarchy.
I know you aren't insulting my list, as it truly is hard to get a top 25. I am always working on it, and even today I've made a change or two. But there are some "notable" names I have left out, like Golota, Brewster, and Rahman. But damn, it's still pretty tough. I have to actually go and try to do real work now, but I may try a revised top 25 list this evening or tomorrow.
Wladimir Klitschko Vitali Klitschko Eddie Chambers Chris Arreola David Haye Alexander Povetkin Ruslan Chagaev Tony Thompson Sam Peter Alexander Dimitrenko
I wouldn't put any of those names in my list either. Though I have a soft spot for Lamon. I also don't default rate Haye as a top ten guy even in these talent-free times. Bonin and Barrett are not a large body of work. I think Boswell would get in my top 25.
I have Boswell in my "others" list, meaning in otherwords I could easily replace him with any of the names I have in my 20-25 slots, lol. There is a point around that place in my rankings that it all becomes interchangeable, but I just started this "project" so I'll try to have reasoning behind everyone of my picks, and I'll also try to reason why I've wasted so much time on an asinine project.
I'd maybe switch vitali and wlad and might put chambers in at 9, but other than that, this is a very precise and hard to argue with list.
1. Wlad Klitschko 2. Vitali Klitschko 3. Valuev 4. Povetkin 5. Chagaev 6. Chambers 7. Arreola 8. Peter 9. Dimitrenko 10. Haye
Yeah, I would expect that from a biased Klitschko fan. These guys are so biased, it could be night out and they would tell you it is day and expect you to believe it.