Second this. He may not even be the greatest heavyweight in history, depending on your criteria and how you evealuate his fights. Yet there are people that have him a lock for the greatest P4P fighter in history which is just nuts.
If I am going to pick one guy I will go with Rocky Marciano. When I was a kid (The 1960s) he was a boxing hero to many men and that undefeated record was paraded around as proof that he may have been the best ever. Almost 60 years later he is still ranked very highly. I don't mean H2H where he would now be a small cruiserweight. I mean his ATG status. He finished 49-0 and was a lineal heavyweight champion but his championship reign consisted of very little of substance. His best wins were, essentially, taking out the use-to-be-great old guys who had been around for a long time. A man can only fight who is available and while you can't punish him for not facing strong opposition you shouldn't reward him either.
If Marciano rates top tier all time head to head below 200lb..then he can’t possible be overrated. In fact that is truly remarkably great if you believe my statement to be true
Marciano is very under rated especially by the ¨everything today is better, and muh huge heavyweights¨ crowd.
Gene Tunney is the #1 Over Rated GOAT! Then leave the next 4 spots blank, and start again with #6. The IMMORTAL WILLARD has spoken!
I think Aaron Pryor was one of those guys that was super close to top 5 all time great, but needed a FEW little things.
Mike Tyson lb for lb and age, if you froze him in time when he became champ, and every other fighter in history had to be as good as Tyson was at that age or bust, no one would ever be better. I think there was a point in Mike Tysons career where if you measure him against every other fighter ever at the same age, he is bar none the best.
I think there is a lot of Truth in that, I think at One Point in History, Mike Tyson truly was "the Baddest Man" on the Planet!