This should be an interesting one. Who do you think is the most overrated fighter in ALL of boxing history? I gotta go with Jack Dempsey personally, he's rated highly at heavyweight but, judging by his resume, you'd have no idea why. Who's your pick?
Overrated by the mainstream media & boxing casuals, would likely be a high profile HW. I'd guess if you stopped the average person on the street and ask them who the greatest boxer of all time was, Ali would get the most answers & possibly Tyson the 2nd most. Ali is in most hardcore boxing fan's top 10 P4P of all time, but hardly ever #1, and Tyson wouldn't appear anywhere near most people's greatest 10 P4P boxers ever. Going back years, using the same logic as above, I'd agree your pick of Dempsey would have applied.
Not the most overrated but one that comes to mind is Fitz, he gets a lot of praise as a the first multi-divisional champ, but I think his win over Corbett propels him into a higher rating than I'd personally place him
I don't think Eubank is that highly rated even in the UK? Everyone knows him as a big personality but he is remembered now more as a celebrity than as a boxer by the general public. Amongst hardcore fans I think he is thought of about right, a talented belt holder but never the best in his division.
Mainly due to my ignorance I find I probably overrate many old time champs as I just go with the legend as their records tend to be more or less meaningless to me. I tend to throw them in my top 20 without much thought as Nat Fleischer or Bert Sugar says they were good!
I remember a small window of time when Antonio Margarito was seen as the most dangerous fighter in the world, at least amongst the boxing rags. That bubble burst quite quickly and no idea how he is rated now.
Jim Corbett, Stanley Ketchel, Jimmy Wilde, Jack Dempsey, Sandy Saddler, Ruben Olivares and Ricardo Lopez are some of the names I feel get overrated by the hardcore fans. Varying degrees amongst them, and that's not to say they weren't still great or at least very good fighters in their own right - just not quite as great as most would view them, in my eyes. Tyson and Canelo probably more overrated with the causal fan.
I suppose i was thinking about the casual fan, with which he was - and still is - hugely overrated. If we're going hardcore, then yes, agree with your last sentence (but I guess i wanted to say someone a bit less predictable than "Ali, Tyson, Marciano, Dempsey")
What could Muhammad Ali have done to justify his historical ranking besides dispatching four Olympic Gold Medalists, six International Boxing Hall Of Fame inductees, two top ten heavyweight atgs and one top ten bubble atgs, and essentially cleaning out his division in two separate decades?
I think Marciano is overated in some respects. Tales of him running 15 miles a day etc all add to the legend. Peter Wilson who was at 3 of his training camps said Rocky ran 7 miles a day and that's still a lot. Tyson Fury is being overated at the moment,his resume is singularly underwhelming, active fighters should be assessed when they are retired imo, Ditto AJ, who not so long ago was getting plenty of hype,but is now being relegated to Frank Bruno status. Georges Carpentier Battling Levinsky Ismael Laguna Naseem Hamed Floyd Mayweather Laszlo Papp Marcel Cerdan Jim Corbett Peter Jackson Are some imo, I've seen lauded above their true station
I see Dempsey come up all the time and I don't get it tbh. It may've been true about 10-20 years ago but he rarely even shows up in top ten lists anymore. He's gone from being slightly overrated to moderately underrated imo. I can't agree with Jeffries either. I don't even think your average casual would know who that is.