Top 20 Light-Heavyweights of all time

I'll give it a go:

1. Charles
2. Langford
3. Moore
4. Spinks
5. Tunney
6. Foster
7. Conn
8. Greb
9. Loughran
10. Fitz
11. Bivins
12. H. Johnson
13. Norfolk
14. RJJ
15. Qawi
16. Saad
17. Delaney
18. Galindez
19. Gibbons
20. Burns

It's only recently dawned on me that when you consider every fighter that ever weighed between 161-175 lbs (not simply every fighter that won the title or officially competed @the weight), this might be the deepest division in history.

 

I was gonna make a list of my own, but yours is pretty picture perfect. No need to clog up a thread, lol.

 

Thank you.

The OP's list isn't too dissimilar from mine either, except I think Norfolk & Delaney deserve places somewhere on there.

 

That's true. It was just a matter of placement for me- Having Qawi over Saad, Galindez, and otherwise, the inclusion of Norfolk, and the ordering at the very top as well. When it comes to top lists like this, most aren't too dissimilar from one another.

 

People seem to rate Foster really highly on these lists but I don't see it personally his resume was not that strong and he reigned in a weak era for Light Heavyweights.

Like for example I think Matthew Saad Muhammad has more notable wins over top Light Heavyweights. Yet no one rates Muhammad anywhere near Foster which is quite baffling to me.

 

That’s a fine list

 

I would say lightweight 135 …

 

I would say Pastrano might sneak in there on the low end. Win against Johnson, win against Maxim, draw with Moore. Also deserves some points because he influenced Ali's style.

 

1. Charles
2. Langford
3. Moore
4. Spinks
5. Tunneu
6. Conn
7. Foster
8. RJJ
9. Greb
10. JH Lewis
11. Loughran
12. Harold Johnson
13. Bivins
14. Gibbons
15. Beterbiev
16. Saad Muhammad
17. Galindez
18. Burns
19. Qawi
20. Marshall/Kovalev tie

Fitz was great but his peak was middleweight and heavyweight.

People forget how good Kovalev was at his peak.

Beterbiev is the most destructive force i have seen in my life. His win over a underrated guy like Gvozdyk is enough for me. H2H i think he could have beaten a lot of guys above him. I do agree that the winner of Beterbiev Bivol will likely get inside the top 10.

 

He weighed around 165-168 during his peak years, which would place him in the LHW range even then.

 

In that case, given what he accomplished, a case for top 10 at lhw can be made. I'll have to think about it.

 

No John Henry Lewis though? Oversight or do you just not rate him? I’d like to know why if the latter.

For me, I think I’d have James Scott in my top 20 (15-20 range). Like Tunney and Ezzard, he never held a title but as with those two he seems a likely champ if given the opportunity. He completely ran Eddie Mustafa Muhammad out of the ring, and EMM was a handful, and he also basically shut out Yaqui Lopez, who was top-ranked and gave both Saad and Galindez all they could handle. Plus quite a few other nice wins in a short career.

(I wouldn’t argue with anyone who doesn’t think Scott quite makes the cut to join the top 20, but I would take issue with anyone who didn’t have him among the next tier.)

 

A spot for "Great" Scott certainly isn't undeserved, those Rahway guys were tough.

 

Maxim needs to be on these lists. He’s prob more accomplished then most of these top tens