has Patterson the best post champion career of any HW champion? To clarify for eg you cannot include Alis second career until he lost the crown again.
What do you consider Tysons post Douglas career. Yes he picked up belts but he was never the man in the division agai, if so this gets my vote
I think Bob Fitzsimmons post title career is the best by quite a way. After losing to Jeffries, he obliterated the top contenders, gave Jeffries all he could handle, then won the Light heavy title. Jack Johnson post title, i think, is very underated, but probably not as good as Patterson or Fitzsimmons. Schmelling was a pretty decent call. What about Holyfield?
if Tyson wasn't the man after destroying Bruno and seldon I dont know who was. At the time everyone i knew considered him hw champion. In terms of the thread, counting only from when a champ lost his title for the last time, floyd is right up there. schmelling, Holmes both deserve a mention. I think it is clear for Floyd though.
Ezzard Charles had a very productive post-title career, although hanging on too long obviously hurts the record. However, after losing the title he fought for it 3 times, losing a very disputed decision to JJ Walcott, losing a close decision to Marciano and coming very close to a stoppage win over Rocky in the rematch. Aside from that he did beat Rex Layne twice, Joey Maxim, Jimmy Bivins, Bob Satterfield and Paul Andrews all post-title.
Tyson was a strange time, in some ways. I think 90% of people considered him the man, even the day after he was knocked out by Buster Douglas! And probably also while he was in prison. Not even Jack Johnson could claim that and i dont think any previous champion could. It wasnt really until the first and possibly even the second Holyfield loss that decent numbers of people started considering that he might not be the baddest man on the planet. EVen then, there was still a decent percentage that considered him the man, until he lost to Lennox. And i dare say, if he posted a picture of himself in trim shape on the internet tomorrow and a statement that he was coming back tomorrow, like Jim Jeffries, he would probably be considered the biggest threat to the Klitchskos, by most casual fans. All because of an aura which started over 3 decades ago that really is an aura which is astonishing beyond belief. IN fact, in my view it is the greatest aura of invincibility in the history of the sport.
I suppose Liston and Louis had underrated later careers. I had forgotten Schmeling and Fitz was impressive as stated.