Who ranks the highest at Heavyweight - Charles, Tunney or Patterson?

For me,it's
Charles
Patterson
Tunney


Charles' resume and overall ability makes him top here,imo.

 

charles.

 

Charles is the best but to me he IS the BEST L-HW in history his term at HW only adds to his greatness at his true weight,

this is how I prefer to rate fighters at their leveled out true weight, charles passed through MW and finished at HW but he was/is very much a L-HW.

he can and probably does beat both Tunney and Paterson, but Tunney would be the harder fight. So at HW I'd place Tunney first, then Paterson, and as I said I wouldn't rate Charles at HW.

 

Charles
Tunney
Patterson - incredibly admirable guy aswell tho so I'm tempted to Patterson leap frogs all the others solely on the basis of what a great man he was haha

 

11. Floyd Patterson
14. Ezzard Charles
29. Gene Tunney

Patterson and Charles have a comparable resume but Patterson´s achievements edge it for me. Youngest hw champ - yes he still is, Tyson is the youngest beltholder - and first to regain the title. Tunney lacks the depth of resume and longevity at hw to be up there.

H2h all three fights would be close. I think Patterson is the fastest and most powerful of those three and not far behind the other two skillwise, if at all, so I´d give him the edge here.

 

Moore was not over the hill. He would go on to be active at the top for another 7 years with some great wins and be lhw champ for most of the time. And he was ranked number one at hw at the time. He was not over the hill. It´s a legitimate win over a p4p and lhw great and a borderline hw great.

I rate on resume, achievements, longevity and dominance. Tunney doesn´t score that high on the most important one, resume, cause he lacks depth at hw, and longevity too. Nothing against him, a true atg, I rate him in my Top10 at lhw and I think he is a Top20/25 p4p great IMO. But at hw it´s a bit too thin to rank him high IMO.

Exactly. :thumbsup

 

1. Tunney - never knocked out, only once knocked down. Beaten only once. Superb record. Wins over Jack Dempsey x 2, Harry Greb
x 2, Tommy Gibbons, Tom Heeney. Great boxing skills, amazing durability. Retired as undefeated champion at his absolute peak.

2. Charles - wins over Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott x 2, Joe Baksi, Rex Layne, Elmer Ray. Lost his title by one-punch KO, dropped decisions at heavyweight to Nino Valdes and Harold Johnson. Gave Marciano one tough fight. Great skills.

3. Patterson - won the HW title vacated by Marciano. Beat Moore, Jackson x 2, Johansson x 2, Machen, Bonavena ... Disputed losses to Quarry and Ellis. Badly KO'd by Johansson once, outclassed by Liston x 2 and Ali. First man to regain championship. Amazing speed.

 

Youngest HW Champ.

But Charles had more World Title Defenses(consecutive and overall) and was also the busiest Champion ever. I don't see a huge achievement edge for Patterson other than his age and X2 Champion status.

 

That´s the point.

 

-Age doesn't matter. Patterson was truly special to do what he did at that age but I'm not prepared to use that stat to put him over a man with 8 consecutive defenses against stiffer competition. Charles had the busier and stronger World Title reign, bottom line.

-X2 status is a tricky bag as a measuring stick. Patterson got upset but won the belt back. Does this deserve extra "points"?