Since you guys like lists, here's Ringside report's's top 100 heavies

LOL, I have 50 lists from various historians. Perhaps the most significant one was the McCallum survey. Ever hear of it? It was done in the 1960's after Ali defeated Liston. The survey consisted of at least 12 seasoned boxing writers, including Nat Fleischer. Many of the men in the survey were born before Jeffries won the championship. The important thing to focus on is many of the fighters old time fighters have very little film today, but many on the pannel who voted have seen flims that have vanished, seen the men in the ring, and had access to first hand testoninals that we could only dream of.

With no further delay, here are the results, with the source listed.

The Encyclopedia of World Boxing Champions , John D. McCallum (pp. 322-323)

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

 

Do you have Fitzimmons, Corbett or Sullivan in your top ten, as this survey did in the 1960's? Neither do I. That is how I reconsile.

A very interesting point is Joe Louis, who today is pretty much a universal top 5 ATG, was not viewed as better than some of his predecessors or successors until sometime in the late 60's to early 70's. This makes me wonder how good some of the old timers were. Without the films its hard to tell.