Because Holyfield was in his absolute prime when he fought Byrd. Are you related to Chris Byrd or is this just a gimmick account?
Yes, you are right, Holyfield wasn't at his best. I still think Byrd would have beaten the mid-1990s version though. He would have certainly beaten the version that Lewis and Ruiz beat.
Frazier would batter Byrd. Cutie, with no power and pedestrian workrate vs aggressive, relentless swarmer with great body attack and accuracy = A long night on the ropes for the powderpuff punching cutie.
Byrd in the top 20 is not a stretch but who to pull down. I personally rate Povetkin highly but Byrd has a better body of work than Wilder has at the moment. That's the problem with rating an active fightr. Now to the last 20, 81-100. D.Jones Peralta Akinwanda Seldon Maskaev Barrett Sanders Lyakhovich Jennings Whyte Cleroux Biggs Kirk Johnson Norris Bobick Hunter snr DeJohn Botha Arreola Spencer That omits Ocasio,Stiverne, Foster, Knoetze, Leroy Jones, Bey, Mason, Bentt, Hide, Grant, Donald, Dimitrenko, Schultz, Etienne, Helenius and probably a host mor, open to decent arguments.
Brave thing to admit here. IMO any top 20 list without Liston is questionable, I don't think I have a word for a top 100 list without him...
Everyone makes mistakes. Maybe if people were more willing to admit mistakes we'd see less terrible, uninformed, contrarian opinions defended to the death.
The first "Where's Sonny Liston?" would have been the place to admit he just forgot. Hell my memory is so bad, my favorite joke is about being assigned memory exercises but forgetting to do them. Seems silly to want to own it and opt for "I don't rate him".
It was a joke! I thought that it was reasonable to assume that anyone who was attempting to rate 100 heavyweight boxers from 1956 on would know that Liston was top 20 shoe-in, probably top ten, I was wrong, apologies.
I thought it was pretty obvious the "don't rate him" comment was a joke, especially when he said he just fogot right after. In fairness it is a lot easier to miss the point online than in person.
I would rate Byrd and Povetkin above Wilder. With Byrd just above Povetkin. Since the 70s, this would be my top 10 of heavyweights: Lewis Vitali Wlad Holmes Ali Byrd Foreman Holyfield Bowe Povetkin Fury will probably crack the top 10 when he retires. Ike would have made the top 10 easily had he kept his nose clean. Frazier was made to look better than he was by Ali' poor inside work. Tyson was always overrated. Norton would be top 15. Kellerman said that Byrd would beat the Spinks Bros btw.
Final tiers; TIER 1 Johansson, Patterson, Liston, Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Norton, Young, Holmes, Witherspoon, Tyson, Bowe, Holyfield, Lewis, V.Klitschko, W.Klitschko, Povetkin, Fury, Byrd Joshua TIER 2 Machen Folley Terrell Bonavena Ellis Quarry Lyle Thomas Tubbs M.Spinks Douglas Ruddock Tucker Ibeahuchi WilderMoorer Chagaev Shavers Rahman Weaver TIER 3 Tate Cooney Dokes Berbick Smith Mercer McCall Tua Coetzee Bruno A. Ruiz Ibragimov Morrison Golota L.Spinks Valuev Pulev J.Ruiz Oquendo carl Williams TIER 4 Haye Parker Thompson Berbick Snipes Damiani Clev. Williams Briggs McCline Toney Bugner Chuvalo Adamek H.Cooper Chalmers Peter Martin Ortiz Middleton Brewster TIER 5 D.Jones Peralta Akinwanda Seldon Maskaev Barrett Sanders Lyakhovich Jennings Whyte Cleroux Biggs Kirk Johnson Norris Bobick Hunter snr DeJohn Botha Arreola Spencer
