These Are my " Contender's list " Jerry Quarry 1. Floyd Patterson 2. Ron Lyle 3. Earnie Shavers 4. Thad Spencer. 5. Mac Foster Jimmy Young 1. George Foreman 2. Ron Lyle 3. Jose Luis Garcia 4. Richard Dunn 5. Rocky Sekorski Zora Folley 1. Eddie Machen 2. Oscar Bonavena 3. George Chuvalo 4. Bob Foster 5. Henry Cooper Ron Lyle 1. Earnie Shavers 2. Oscar Bonavena 3. Joe Bugner 4. Jimmy Ellis 5. Scott LeDoux Earnie Shavers 1. Ken Norton 2. Jimmy Ellis 3. Henry Clark 4. Howard "KO" Smith 5. Roy Williams Oscar Bonavena 1. Karl Mildenberger 2. George Chuvalo 3. Leotis Martin 4. Gregorio Peralta 5. Zora Folley George Chuvalo 1. Jerry Quarry 2. Doug Jones 3. Bob Cleroux 4. Manuel Ramos 5. Alex Miteff Duane Bobick 1. Chuck Wepner 2. Scott LeDoux 3. Young Sanford 4. Randy Neumann 5. Bunny Johnson
Oscar; 1-Peralta 2=artin 3-Mildenberger 4-Folley 5=middlton add in Chuvalo, Lewis, Corletti, and the decent perfprmances with Patterson, Ali and Ellis, he was better than he gets credit for. Johnson; Charles Machen Bivins Moore Valdez And Satterfield, Godoy, and Doug Jones
Great thread, lets have a top ten contenders based on the best 5 wins at the end; Maher; 1-Choynski "-Ruhlin 3-Goddard 4-Slavin 5-Godfrey and add in Kennedy, Russell, Jeffords, Klondike, CC Smith and a load similar, Draws with Hall and McAuliffe that were wins really and a draw with Sharkey that he looked like winning.
Appreciate the list but voting two at a time. Currently up is Oscar Bonavena and Harold Johnson. All others will come eventually if they didn’t already. Keep voting just stick to the two at a time so we may discuss
I have no idea how Ron Stander made it to 'tied for 5th' in the Ken Norton best contenders. I don't know if he ever held a world rating, but after the Joe Frazier debacle in '72, he went 5-6 before meeting Norton in '76. Hardly what I would consider one of his great wins. Duane Bobick, Randy Cobb and Boone Kirkman were at least all world-rated when he beat them.
Stander himself had some very good wins. I suppose when he met him he wasn’t at his best...Norton’s fourth and fifth were all close and up for debate
I really fail to see anything that was a standout on the Ron Stander ledger as far as a greatest win. He beat Thad Spencer who had lost 6 out of his last 7. He beat Jack O'Halloran who had lost 6 out of his last 7. He beat Manuel Ramos who had won 2 out of his last 13. He beat Terry Daniels who lost 10 out of his last 11. He did beat a green Earnie Shavers who was 12-1 at the time in an 8 round preliminary, but his best win was over Morris Jackson - also from Omaha I believe - but Jackson was nothing more than a prospect. He was so poor he lost to clubfighter Rico Brooks 4 months before Frazier 'bestowed' on him a title shot. My God!
Turkey Thompson 1----Elmer Ray* 2----Arturo Godoy 3----Lee Q Murray* 4----Pat Valentino* 5----Gus Dorazio* * KO victories others--Junior Munsell*, Tommy Martin, Buddy Knox*, Eddie Blunt*, Perk Daniels, Johnny Haynes*, Kid Riviera*, Al Hart*, Clayton Worlds plus draws with Abe Simon and Tony Musto Thompson also was impressive moving through the light-heavyweights as a youngster with wins over Teddy Yarosz, Johnny Romero* x 3, Glen Lee*, etc. Thompson lost twice to Bob Pastor, but in their first fight had Pastor down 6 times in the first round, Pastor managed to survive and rally. Had Thompson gotten that stoppage, his resume would be a reasonable pick for among the top ten of all contenders. Thompson's record overall was 54-15-2 with 1 NC and 39 KO's. He probably was second only to Louis as a puncher among 1940's heavyweights. He had a freaky build, being only 5' 8.5" but weighing well over 200 lbs for most of his career. He seems to have been extremely dangerous early but didn't carry his power that well into the later rounds. If a fighter could survive the early rounds, he had a fair chance of outpointing Thompson. Overall, an often overlooked and underrated contender.
Bob Pastor top five 1 Jimmy Bivins 2 Turkey Thompson 3 Tami Mauriello 4 Roscoe Toles 5 Gus Lesnevich Davis Tua top five 1 John Ruiz (for the sensation of it all) 2 Fres Oquendo 3 Oleg Maskaev 4 Hasim Rahman 5 Michael Moorer Hasim and Moorer are bigger names but Moorer was shot by then and Hasim was extremely dirty. So they were taken down a few
Bob Pastor 1----Jimmy Bivins 2----Turkey Thompson 3----Roscoe Toles 4----Lem Franklin 5----Gus Lesnevich Plus Lee Ramage, Al Ettore, Buddy Scott, Maurice Strickland, and draws with Lou Nova, Maxie Rosenbloom, and Tami Mauriello What stands out to me that his resume gets a big shot in the arm from fights after his KO defeats to Louis and Conn. Four of his top five were 1942 victories. Depth is good, but not outstanding, though in fairness, Pastor's career was cut short by WW2 when he was still a top man. David Tua 1----Hasim Rahman 2----John Ruiz 3----Michael Moorer 4----Oleg Maskaev 5----Fres Oquendo Good top five, but not too much depth.
Bob Pastor 1) Jimmy Bivins 2) Lem Franklin 3) Gus Lesnevich 4) Turkey Thompson 5) Roscoe Toles David Tua 1) Hasim Rahman 2) Michael Moorer 3) Fres Oquendo 4) Oleg Maskaev 5) John Ruiz
