1975 Ring Magazine's 'All-Time Heavyweight Top 10'

Just looking through one of my old Ring mags and found this interesting and controversial ranking of the all-time great heavyweights and thought I would share it with the Classic forum. These rankings are taken from the March-April 1975 issue of The Ring Magazine:

1. Joe Louis
2. Jack Dempsey
3. Jim Jeffries
4. Jack Johnson
5. Rocky Marciano
6. Gene Tunney
7. Bob Fitzsimmons
8. Jim Corbett
9. Muhammad Ali
10. Joe Frazier

Also, if you want me to post the other divisions I would be more than happy to do so :good

 

Hellzya!!!!

 

A pretty solid list.

I think we are very often too far up our own arses here to accept that was thought to be a top 10 in 1975, has just as much merit as what is thought a top 10 list in 2009.

 

Division-By-Division - The Greatest Fighters of All-Time
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As selected by The Ring magazine in various years.

http://www.boxrec.com/media/index.php/Division-By-Division_-_The_Greatest_Fighters_of_All-Time

 

They had n't quite admitted Muhammad Ali's greatness at this point,in spite of Muhammad whupping George Foreman.

 

Times have changed, eh?

 

Never seen that before - cheers :good

 

Muhammad Ali dominates everyone above him easily, with the sole exception of Joe Louis. Let's be honest here.

 

I don't think he has an easy time with Marciano at all.

 

Can times really do that? I'm surprised to hear such an utterance in these parts.

 

Originally Posted by jaffay
http://www.boxrec.com/media/index.ph...rs_of_All-Time

I remember that ranking of Holy in third place, all-time.

The world was in awe of the Real Deal on the strength of his defeating Mike Tyson.

In some ways, Tyson was a nightmare to be banished.

Tokyo was no doubt a fluke; in the early '90s, Tyson's aura remained just as formidable as in his prime, but it had morphed into something even scarier: he was no longer just the fiendishly gifted athlete who savagely tore through the best heavyweights in the world. He had continuously deteriorated into the unsettling public behavior of a strong man at large who in his cynicism acknowledged no boundaries and was capable of the worst hair-trigger response. No wonder Ali said, "I'm scared of him."

Then he was convicted of **** and imprisoned.

Upon his release, he returned to the ring and looked every bit as frightening as in the time when he destroyed Holmes and Spinks. McNeely, Mathis, champion Bruno and Seldon, no matter their prefight bravado, simply came unhinged before Iron Mike Tyson and met swift, ignominious defeat.

And heart patient Evander Holyfield, he of the third Bowe war washed-up warrior cave-in, since retired, was challenging Tyson? And steadfastly predicting his triumph?

No wonder the crowd was pure excitement and joy that night at the close. Darkness had just been banished by a (seemingly) old-school warrior who showed up and beat the unbeatable foe and fulfilled the impossible dream.

The rematch merely confirmed this all, and then some. Only a madman could resort to what Mike Tyson did in the ring that night. And only a gallant hero could respond with Holyfield's poise and courage through it all. Everyone agreed the bully had taken the way out, never to chill hearts again.

This was Holyfield's standing in 1998 and why so many believed in him, despite all the exceeding ring wear, against Lewis a year later.

 

A nice read but little more than that, IMO. The decade of the 70's was far from over and hindsight had yet to kick-in. Besides, it was likely compiled by a guy pushing 90 years-old and betrothed with old-timers.

:smoke

 

As opposed to today, where the timeline works out just about right to wind up with older guys who were growing up with 70's fighters, and their kids who heard about how great the 70's Heavyweights were, fill their top 10 lists with that nonstop on their computers. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

Not gonna argue with that, but having hindsight on just about three additional decades does tend to shade in a few things, no?

:good