your #1 prime vs prime head to head heaveyweight

How about just Ali himself?

 

My perfect fighter would have the height, size, and power of Lewis (or power of Foreman), the speed and chin of Ali, the jab of Holmes, the aggression of Tyson, Frazier or Dempsey, and the overall fighting technique of Louis.

 

My perfect imaginary heavyweight would be Sonny Liston with the speed of Cassius Clay.

 

If required to work with existing fighters that would be my pick.

Given my blank sheet of paper I would like a fighter who was sort of a 210 lb version of Gene Tunney with ali like reflexes and durability and most importantly the Tunney fighting brain. Power would be nice but as long as it was at Ali level or better I would be satisfied.

I see no reason why such a fighter would not be physicaly possible.

 

So Larry Holmes, then?

 

Not really.

I can see why you would make the conection but he is not really what I am thinking of.

More a technicaly sound and strategicaly minded Ali.

 

I think Ali was as strategically minded as anyone. You have a good point about some of his technical deficiancies though.

 

Strategicaly minded might not have been the best choice of words. What I want is sombody with a more analytical mind. Sombody like Gene Tunney or Fritzie Zivic.

 

You're right, I started a thread last year about an All-Time HW tournament where each fighter of the Top 15 faces each other, and I asked people to determine the final ranking, considering that each fighter is in his prime.

I prefer that kind of ranking because it's more accurate of the fighters abilities rather than a "legacy based" ranking where Marciano automatically ranks higher than Liston. In reality we know that Liston would destroy the smaller Rocky Marciano.

I had a pretty hard time ranking Larry Holmes because he never looked outrageously dominant at any point, but on the other side, he's got a shot vs any fighter ever.

In a mixed list (H2H and legacy) I rank Holmes 3rd behind Ali and Louis. But prime for prime, I think the fighters I listed in front of him are better prime fighters.

I also respected Jeffries a lot even if I didn't see many of his fights. He was so dominant in his era, he was such an athlete, he deserves that.

 

Head to head it has to be Ali. I can't think of any other heavyweight with the all round abilities required to come close to him.

Next, I would have in a cluster Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, Sonny Liston, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson (maybe) and Lennox Lewis.

Of course, I am thinking of all these fighters in their prime.

 

1. Ali
2. Louis
3. Dempsey
4. Holmes
5. Marciano
6. Lennox Lewis
7. Johnson
8. Holyfield
9. Foreman
10. Tyson