Why? I can understand Foreman's position in the ratings being considered tentative, due to his one and only performance (W MD 12 against Stewart), but those ranked below Foreman, by the end of 1992, were Ruddock, who had lost by early TKO to contender Lewis; Mercer, who'd lost a comfortably wide decision to Holmes; Morrison, who had posted 5 stoppage wins against modest opposition and Alex Garcia, who had been on a win streak (8-0-0) against low-end competition. I'm not sure which one of those deserved to be above Foreman or if there were any more deserving contenders not recognized by the Ring, at the time, who might have displaced him. But, ironically, Morrison was probably the most likely candidate. By virtue of the fact he beat a ranked Foreman, who would subsequently go on to become Lineal Champ, Morrison deserved his rating.
Povetkin beat Whyte, H Fury. Helenius pounded Kowanacki. Ortiz was done in by the officials against Wilder after the tall clown was given a long break to recover from the pounding he's gotten. Old Holmes beat Mercer? A lot of technical boxers could beat Mercer.
I agree there was a period when it’s hard to name a worse period in heavyweight championship history. WBA - Seldon. WBC - Bruno. IBF - Botha. That’s what happens with all these belts. But all in all there were some great fighters and if the titles could of remained unified some Seldon, Bruno and Botha would likely have stayed contenders and not belt holders. A lot of the blames is Rock Newman’s advising Bowe to throw the WBC belt in the bin and Bowe’s for doing it. That started the split.
Met Tommy at a few parties he was a cool guy he taught me a lot about whipping my hips through left hooks he ate a lot of wendys at that point and was not exactly looking in top shape but no doubt he takes my head off not relevant but I like to bring it up because he was a cool cat
Of the ratings I have - from magazines, not organizations (very corrupt by this point) - Morrison entered BI's ratings at #19 in April 1991. By March 1992 he was up to #16, so the Mercer loss didn't really hurt him. These are "ratings as of", not magazine cover dates, btw. By July 92 he was #10 in Ring and finished the year out at #9 in Ring (pre and post Joe Hipp). By summer 93 he was #4 (post Foreman) in Ring and stayed there until November when he slipped back to #9 (post Bentt). By the summer of 94 he'd slipped to #10 before falling out (post Purrity) and never returning to Ring's top 10 as far as I know. He may have popped up again after the Ruddock fight, but if he did it wasn't very high. Ruddock was unranked when they fought. I don't have all the ratings from all the mags - working on it - but this is what I do have.
There is great talent today but the matchmaking is atrocious. Why we have to wait till a guy like Hrgovic turns 40 till he fights a warm body is a perfect example of all that is wrong.
I wrote them down , AND I had them somewhere , I will work on it, now this will be predominately Ring . # 4 was I believe to be his very best as this is 1-10 rankings where they do not show a clear Champion as it used to be Champion and then 1-10 contenders. Now Morrison actually had 2 titles during his 48-3-1 record with 42 knockouts, He also won IBC Title ko over Razor Ruddock.
YES HE DID RETURN MAYBE 4 OR 5 MONTHS GIVE OR TAKE LONGER AT #8 AND #9 YOU ARE CORRECT , OFF Ruddock IBC TITLE VICTORY. HE ENDED 48-3-1 W/ 42 KNOCKOUTS.
This content is protected This content is protected NOV 92 (7-7-92).....#10 DEC 92 (8-12-92)....#9 This content is protected JAN 93 (9-15-92).....#9 FEB 93 (10-15-92)...#9 MAR 93 (11-18-92)..#9 APR 93 ...................#9 MAY 93 (1-25-93)....#9 JUN 93 ...................#9 JUL 93 (3-17-93).....#8 AUG 93 (4-15-93).....#8 SEP 93 (5-12-93)......#6 (George Foreman ranked #5 ) OCT 93 (6-15-93).....#4 (George Foreman ranked #7 Lost 12 unanimous Dec. to Morrison) NOV 93 (7-16-93).....#4 DEC 93 (8-12-93).....#4 This content is protected JAN 94 (9-15-93)......#4 FEB 94 (10-28-93)....#4 MAR 94 (11-24-93)...#9 (Michael Bentt ranked #5 Won TKO 1 over fourth ranked Morrison) APR 94 (1-1-94)........#9 MAY 94 (1-20-94).....#10 JUN 94 (2-25-94)......#10 JUL 94 (3-24-94)......UNR. AUG 94 (4-15-94).....UNR. SEP 94 (5-12-94)......UNR. OCT 94 (6-10-94)......#10 NOV 94 (7-8-94).......#10 DEC 94 (8-5-94).......UNR.
The reality is that at the time the WBO was so lightly regarded it's not funny. Absolutely nobody who was following the sport back then considered Francesco Damiani a former world champion. Magazines at the time often referred to it as the WBogus title. I think the revisionism that occurs isn't really with the 90s Heavyweights as a whole, but with some of the individual fighters themselves. I always think of Tommy as a fun fighter that was involved in some very memorable fights. A legitimate contender to the title that was held by others.
Maybe so, but it doesn't speak very well of Holyfield and Lewis that they struggled with a guy who lost to an overweight Holmes more than 8 years removed from his prime. Povetkin beating Whyte seems to be the only example of a past it guy beating a genuine ranked contender though Whyte's rating in the top 10 is probably arguable. Ortiz being done in by the officials against Wilder is pure speculation, nothing more. Officially, Wilder knocked him out twice and Joshua stopped Pulev. I don't see how Povetkin beating Whyte or Helenius beating Kownacki are especially relevant as neither Kownacki or Hughie Fury have done anything to show they are among the best.
