Teddy Atlas's top 10 light-heavyweights of all time

As always, it depends on criteria. I based mine solely on fights contested in the weight divison I'm ranking at. Langford only had a handful of fights at LHW and even though he was champion there, Conn's resume at the weight isn't that deep.

Rosenbloom has a deeper win resume at the weight, but he lost a hell of a lot to non elite fighters.

Based solely on fights contested at LHW, allowing a few lbs for slightly over the weight non title fights:

1. Charles
2. Greb
3. Tunney
4. Moore
5. JHL
6. Spinks
7. Foster
8. Bivins
9. Loughran
10. RJJ

 

It's a pretty good list. Only real issue with it imo, is Conn is too high.

 

Bivol has a better resume and better H2H than Foster, Moore should be number 2

 

Spinks should be top 5.

I think despite nostalgia Bivol has a case to be above Foster.

Both of their notable wins are against fighters moving up in weight Tiger & Canelo.

But unlike Foster who didn't really have a strong rival to challenge him Bivol had Beterbiev.

And whilst it took a bit too long for the fight to happen a win over Beterbiev is better than any Light Heavyweight that Foster beat.

Foster was more impressive looking with the highlight reel KO's so if you want to put Foster above Bivol in regards to that understandable.

But Foster didn't really fight in a strong Light Heavyweight era.

 

I think there's a valid case for Bivol over Foster but neither are top 10 worthy.

 

Personally I've always thought Foster automatically being in the top 10 in most people's list always baffled me a bit TBH.

I thought despite Matthew Saad Muhammad having a shorter reign his list of opponents were alot more impressive in my view.

 

Yeah, same here. He's kinda like Carlos Zarate for me, in that I just generally find him overrated in terms of what he's done. Foster is an absolute beast H2H though imo, he'd make mincemeat of Bivol.

Yeah, I'd agree Saad should be higher, and I'd go a step further and say that despite the Canelo-esque favouritism, so is Victor Galindez.

 

I feel the same way about Zarate TBH.

I agree Foster is a bad style match up for Bivol aswell tall and rangy with 1 punch KO power.

I think what you said is honestly true TBH I think Foster rates higher due to his highlight reel KO's and his H2H threat rather than his resume being outstanding.

Yeah Galindez is a good shout aswell he gets underrated when talking about the notable Light Heavyweights of the late 70s early 80s.

 

Were is Bivol rated out of curiosity?

 

I would favor modern LHs. Tunney was a fine fighter for his day but never defeated a good black fighter. Spinks fought thru the LHs of the eighties when there were tons of outstanding guys and was undefeated against almost all the top guys. Then when he left he just became the only LH Champ to capture the Heavyweight title. Tunney never dealt with a LH like Spinks. Spinks dealt with plenty of very good tough LHs.

 

Actually think this is one of his better lists. There’s no-one in there I violently disagree with although I think some are too high/low. No place for Greb which sort of does and doesn’t surprise me. Guys like Atlas and Bert Sugar when he was around always have a hard on for Tunney (particularly at heavyweight) but it’s more reasonable at light heavy. Maybe the rationale for not including Greb is the overall scoreline v Tunney and that he is better known as a middleweight, but still…