Great fighter's with poor defense

Worst thread ever. You can’t be a great fighter and have poor defence.

 

That's your opinion, to me he didn't show that throughout his career. Even if you believe that he's top 10 HW ever in terms of peak (he has no case for top 5), you can't deny that his defense was mediocre.

 

We both know he was very lazy, so he couldn't have shown that throughout his career. I just said in terms of peak form. And even with average defense, he was still good enough

 

I don't deny he was a great fighter at his best, but top 5 gives him way too much credit for my taste.

 

Who do you have in front of him (peak vs peak I mean) ?

 

Name one?

 

He certainly had the ability to be top 5-10 in heavyweight history.
If he had the discipline of prime Ali, or Holyfield? He may
still be champ.

 

Inarguably:

Joe Louis
Sonny Liston
Muhammad Ali
George Foreman
Larry Holmes
Lennox Lewis
Wladimir Klitschko

I don't even name smaller or oldschool fighter to prevent from unnecessary controversies.

 

Bowe would do some serious damage to Wlad and Vitali IMO.

 

I think that Wladimir would beat someone with as questionable defense as Bowe. Of course I'm talking about the peak version of Klitschko, he'd have to be 100% prepared and focused.

 

That's only 7 people, so he's not that far from top 5. I definitely don't have Louis and I'm not exactly sure about Foreman and Lewis either.
I do have Tyson though.