which fighters were one win away from being the goat?

Aaron Pryor........

 

Huh?

His one loss came when he was light years past his prime, and Bobby Joe Young is hardly the opponent to boost your resume.

Now his resume would've of course risen a lot if he had accepted the Leonard fight and managed to win

 

This.

Besides the thread seems to call for reversing 1 win, I'm not exactly sure that Foreman beating Ali would be enough. Given the inevitability of Ali's stock declining.

 

If Foreman had beaten Ali, he would have been the best fighter of the 70s (the golden era). Ali's stock would have fell a bit, but he still would have beaten Frazier and ended the 70s as top dog after foremans retirement.

When Foreman has his second 90s reincarnation it would be something special that only the greatest could have done. (as opposed to now) where we know it was a special effort but we also know he wasnt the greatest, because in his prime he wasnt even the greatest in his own era.

 

I can't think of one win that I'm certain would have made someone the number 1, in weight division OR p4p.

But if Holmes had beaten Tyson that would have been greatly impressive addition to his elite ATG heavyweight credentials.

Now, if SPINKS had beat Tyson he'd be a POUND-FOR-POUND legend extraordinary !

 

Tyson-Lewis

 

Dempsey-Wills would've made beleivers out of a lot more modern day revisionists for some reason??

 

Rodrigo Valdez vs Carlos Monzon

 

de la hoya beating hopkins would of really put him up there

if tito beat him it would not mean anything cos of hopkins standing before

a pac win over mayweather will really see him shoot into the top five standings

archie moore winning heavyweight title against patterson or marciano would have him standing toe to toe with robinson

michael spinks beating mike tyson

even though he is generally considered da greatest, a robinson win over maxim would further solidify his status

 

no way. lewis was seriously underated at the time and would still be if he lost to tyson

same if holyfield beat him

 

a louis win over marciano maybe in the future if marciano wins the title. but it would probably alter rockys standing in the hw rankins

an ali win over holmes would rocket him to number one by most modern pundits

leonard beating norris wouldnt have meant that much cos norris was not that highly rated. i think srl was favoured to win that fight

a win for duran against hagler would make him number one in a lot of modern fans eyes. hearns would have to settle the score against leonard to get himslef up there

 

If Armstrong beat Robinson there'd be no argument, surely

edit - haha need to start reading more than the title before i post