Just an example, but The Ring Magazine posted a list of the greatest Heavyweights in 2017, which included: Muhammad Ali Joe Louis Jack Johnson Rocky Marciano Larry Holmes Jack Dempsey George Foreman Joe Frazier Mike Tyson Sonny Liston Fury recently became the second heavyweight after Muhammad Ali to hold The Ring magazine title twice, and the second heavyweight in history to have held the WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, and WBO titles, after Riddick Bowe. He already beat Klitschko, and encountered the hard-hitting record-breaking WBC champion Wilder in two contests (arguably winning the first encounter despite it being a draw). 'm curious what does Fury have to do to become an all-time great Heavyweight? And he achieves your suggestions: where would he be placed on the Top #20 list? Does Fury have to beat Joshua followed by Usyk? Beating Joshua and surpassing Ali's record of 10 and then Louis' 26 defences of the undisputed titles?
I don't agree with the list but what Tyson Fury needs to do is keep winning. So far he is undefeated and in my opinion his draw should also be a win. He dominated Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder, let's see what else he can do.
Where is Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, Wladimir Klitschko, Vitali Klitschko, Riddick Bowe, and a few others? You know Liston only beat one Hall of Famer and he outweighed him by 30 Lbs., right?
Fury has mentioned a few times that he plans to retire soon. If he gets the Joshua fight next and wins, he may retire then. There is also the possibility he may fight Usyk or Whyte. If he beat all three then he has a very good resume in terms of beating top fighters. However, the lower tier fighters that most champions fight to pad out their record will largely be missing from Fury's resume. This might not seem like much, but these lower fighters can sometimes give a great fighter a tough night due to their style or this lesser fighter being more motivated than the champ. Some people may hold this against Fury. A champion who took on all worthy comers is usually ranked higher than someone who just beat the elite. An interesting example of this would be if Fury beats Joshua and retires, would you rang fury higher than Wlad? Fury beat Wlad and Joshua, who is probably better than any of Wlad's victories. Wilder is also better than most, if not all of Wlad's wins. However, Wlad showed longevity against limited, but occasionally different styles. I imagine when he finally does retire, Fury's H2H ranking will be higher than his resume ranking.
Beating the best of your time makes you the best of that era. Unfortunately we don’t have a time machine so he can’t go back and fight anyone from the past. I don’t see anyone out there beating Fury anytime soon though.
He must defeat a fully healthy Deontay Wilder that wasn’t severely crippled by his ring costume to gain full credibility as an all-time great.
I agree but these all-time great lists are generally a bunch of B.S.. Jack Dempsey? Really? Great fighter but Bowe would have destroyed him. I'm talking about who could beat who head to head, both fighters at their absolute best. Dempsey wasn't even a big Cruiserweight. He had stamina issues and hated going more than 10 rounds. He was easy to hit, and his style was crude. In all honesty I think Tunney was better... Bowe would have beat him too. Liston? What did he do? Always on the list but went 2-2 (2) in HW World title fights. He beat the weak chinned and small Patterson twice and was stopped by Ali twice. He beat the smallish Machen by decision and he stopped the smallish and not very durable Folley. Cleveland Williams was one of the most overrated pretenders ever. Williams never got past the 3rd round vs. the 180 Lb. Satterfield, Liston x2, or Ali. Williams went 1-1 vs. Terrell and had a draw with Machen... what else?
It's not just what he needs to do, but what his past opponents need to do. Wilder could fall into obscurity after losing to a couple of journeymen or Otto Wallin could go onto become a future great. History will be the judge. Right now his resume is too thin and he hasn't made any title defences or unifications.
