And why this argument doesn't work either simply because..... Usyk's power was not stand out against fighters at Cruiserweight either only in the Bellew fight. Holyfield at Cruiserweight before he bulked up had more stoppages in world title fights at Cruiserweight than Usyk 5 compared to 3. So people that want to use the PED argument it doesn't work in that case. I also wish people would stop using size as an argument to determine how durable someone is..... Fury got floored by 210 pound Cunningham who had 1 stoppage out of 12 fights at Heavyweight and who also had a barely 40 percent stoppage ratio in total. Hurting or flooring Fury despite his size is not some rare feat.
I can agree to disagree with almost anyone on most things. But the insistence that bigger heavies are more durable despite all the evidence pointing otherwise just shows some people are immune from logic. On no planet are Fury, Wlad or Joshua more durable than Ali, Holmes and Tyson for example. Its just impossible to have a rational debate with people who insist that Luis Ortiz would beat Joe Frazier or Fury would somehow easily beat Foreman. We are just living in bizzarro world.
Size mattering is broad thing it doesn't mean there aren't expectations to the rule. But what I do say about the some the bigger heavyweights is they are often not in the best shape like say the Kiltschko's.
Ali having the stopping power to put away Foreman and Bonavena pretty much clinches this one for me on the first place. What you said about Holyfield makes him the trickiest to rate, I admit. Ali would never have thrown his weight into sustained attacks the way Evander did. Almost no fighter does it to the level of Holyfield. It's way too risky. The other three are curious enough but I pretty much understand why you'd put the four together on this thread. It's close enough. I'll go Holmes, Holy, Usyk. It's by hairs though.
Ali Holyfield Holmes Usyk Alis clearly first and Usyks clearly last if we're going by the title level. Holmes had more power than Holyfield on average at the title level but Holyfield reached higher highs. Now theres a clear cynical explanation for that but I'm going to take it at face value. One way Holmes is last is that he had to go down the furthest in class to "look like" a dominant puncher. Holmes could get knockdowns and knockouts more consistantly then Holyfield and Usyk at the title level but if you dropped him a few levels this didn't change that much. With the other 3 it did. Even Usyk outside the CW title level had a 100% KO rate. Holmes didn't have very many "intermediate level" fights before and after winning the belt but after 40 fights of padding(and a lower title SOS than Ali) he still has a lower KO rate than Holyfield and Ali. Ali even in the latter stages of his career was a dominant puncher if you gave him an opponent outside of the top 10 or top 15.
Holy Usyk Ali Holmes Surprised at the differing opinions here. I think Holy is clearly the hardest puncher of the 4. IMHO Ali and Holmes had adequate but primarily accumulation pop. To my knowledge Ali had just one, 1 punch KO and that was Liston II where the shot landed perfectly. It was an anomaly and never repeated. Holmes I don’t recall ever getting a 1 punch KO. Even v smaller opponents with questionable chins, Holmes needed to land numerous shots to get them out (L Spinks and M Frazier) The same for Ali minus the Liston fight. I don’t recall him even hurting Norton in their 3 fights and Norton had a poor chin. I rank Usyk higher because he has shown concussive pop v substantially bigger foes that Ali nor Holmes ever displayed. Not easy to hurt Fury with 1 single shot and he did w the left. He also blew away Dubois in the 2nd go with a similar thunderous shot. Ironically his power has improved as he’s gotten to the twilight of his career. Ali’s power diminished substantially in his early 30’s. Holy’s and Holmes power diminished quite a bit by the time they were 38. That being said, I think these 4 fighters are fairly close in overall ability (at their respective primes) and any matchup would be difficult to predict a clear winner.