I don't agree the Witherspoon fight is one of the most overrated controversial decisions. Holmes swept most of the first 6 rounds and then when Witherspoon had a strong period between rounds 7-9. He switched off after the memorable 9th round doing a bad Ali impression giving away the championship rounds. Most of the fans scorecards I've seen have had Holmes winning. You will also find most of the ATG Heavyweights have had controversial decisions. Ali vs Norton, Young, Shavers. Louis vs Walcott. Lewis vs Mercer. Foreman vs Schultz. Etc.
And those 2 decisions were far worse. The Spinks and Nielsen decisions are considered robberies. I had Holmes winning both fights clearly by 3 points.
That's what I rate so high about Holmes he was one of the hardest guys to dominate only Mike Tyson had easy time with him in a 75 fight career spanning till 52.
This is my revised position after looking through the rankings and belt exchanges. Neither Holmes nor Wladmir became undisputed and missed some very important names in their eras. I don't think either one is top 5. I can kind of see the logic behind this. Wladmir did seek out strong challenges and did unify with some decent belt holders while Vitali never did. However, again, I insist that this falls on both guys (moreso towards Vitali) since their resumes have one giant *asterisk as they never fought each other and they were the two strongest boxers in the division co-existing.
Old timers view their hero’s nostalgically. Plus most fans don’t have a great perspective for the importance of size and the evolution of the sport. Boxing training has improved and it’s more of a global sport.