Heavyweight Champions + Notable contenders resume against current top ten opposition

First off I'd like to thank MattDonnellson, Kmac, SonnyListon'sJab, Jack, Casamyor, Bremen, TBooze and Cobler and others for helping me with this.

What I have done is gone through the resume's of every lineal heavyweight champ (From Sullivan to Lewis) and looked for 5 pieces of data: how long they reigned, how many top 10 ranked (pre 1892 it was newspaper clippings, extracts, etc. from 1892 to 1923 it was Matt's rankings, from then on it was the ring rankings) opponents they beat, how many top 10 ranked opponents they defended the lineal belt against, whether they beat "the man" and lastly whether they had beaten a past or future lineal champ.

Here is the raw data:

I have it all tabulated in a spreadsheet so all I have to do is think up a point system and bob's yer uncle

Key: CC=current champ, TD = title defence, NC=non-current champ.

Sullivan: 7 years: Donaldson, Dalton, Ryan (x2), Elliot, Mitchell, Slade, Mcaffrey, Kilrain (TD).

Corbett: 5 years: Choynski (x2), Kilrain, Mcaffrey, Mccoy, Sullivan (CC)

Fitzsimmons: 2 years: Hall, Choynski, Maher, Corbett (CC), Ruhlin, Sharkey, OBrien

Jeffries: 6 years: Sharkey (x2, 1TD), Armstrong, Fitzsimmons (x2, CC + TD), Corbett (x2, 2TDNC), Kennedy, Ruhlin (TD)

Hart: 1 year: Carter( x2), Ferguson, Ruhlin, Johnson (NC), Root, Sullivan, Ross

Burns: 3 years: Hart (CC), OBrien

Johnson: 7 years: Childs, Gardner, Martin, Mcvea (x3), Ferguson, Jeanette (x4), Langford, Fitsimmons (NC*), Flynn, Burns (CC), Ross (TD), Kaufman (TD), Ketchel (TD), Jeffries (TDNC*), Moran (TD),

Willard: 4 years: J. Johnson (CC), Moran (TD), F. Johnson

Dempsey: 7 years: Morris, Fulton, Miske (x2, 1TD), Willard (CC), Brennan (TD), Carpentier (TD), Gibbons (TD), Firpo (TD), Sharkey (NC)

Tunney: 2 years: Spalla, Risko, Dempsey (x2, CC, TDNC), Heeney (TD)

Schmeling: 2 years: Risko, Uzcudun, Sharkey (CC), Stribling (TD), Walker, Neusel, Louis (NC)

Sharkey: 1 years: F. Johnson, Rojas, Weinert, Renault, Gorman, Godfrey, Wills, Maloney, Delaney, Stribling, Carnera (NC), Schmelling (CC)

Carnera: 1 year: Stribling, Godfrey, Levinsky, Schaaf, Sharkey (CC), Uzcudun, Loughran

Baer: 1 year: Risko, Levinsky (x2), Schaaf, Griffiths, Schmelling (NC), Carnera (CC), Farr, Galento

Braddock: 2 years: Lasky, Baer (CC), Farr

Louis: 12 years: Massera, Ramage (x2), Perroni, Brown, Carnera (NC), Levinsky, Baer (NC), Retzlaff, Attore, Braddock (CC), Farr (TD), Mann (TD), Schmelling (TDNC), Galento (TD), Pastor (TD), Godoy (TD), Paycheck (TD), Burman (TD), Simon (x2, 2TD), Baer (x2, 2TD), Conn (x2, 2TD), Nova (TD), Mauriello (TD), Walcott (x2, 2TDNC), Savold, Brion

Charles: 2 years: Maxim (x4, 1TD), Bivins (x2), Baksi, Maxim, Walcott (x2, NC +TDNC), Valentino (TD), Louis (TDNC), Oma (TD), Layne (x2), Brion, Harrison, Wallace, Satterfield

Walcott: 1 year: Sheppard, Murray, Baksi, Bivins, Gomez, Oma, Maxim (x2), Ray, Johnson, Agramonte, Charles (x2, CC + TDNC)

Marciano: 4 years: Lastarza (x2, 1TD), Layne, Louis (NC), Matthews, Walcott (x2, CC + TDNC), Charles (x2, TDNC), Cockell (TD), Moore (TD)

Patterson: 5 years: Harrison, Slade, Jackson (x2, 1TD), Moore, Harris (TD), London (TD), Johanneson (x2, CC +TDNC), Machen, Chuvalo, Bonavena

Johanneson : 1 year: Machen, Patterson (CC)

Liston: 2 years: Bethea, DeJohn, Williams, Harris, Folley, Machen, Patterson (x2, CC + TDNC), Clark

Ali: 11 years: Daniels, Lazarante, Moore, Jones, Cooper, Liston (x2, CC+TDNC), Patterson (x2, TDNC, NC), Chuvalo (TD), London (TD), Mildenberger (TD), Terrell (TD), Folley (TD), Quarry (x2), Bonavena, Ellis, Foster, Bugner (x2, TD), Norton (x2, TD), Frazier (x2, NC + TDNC), Foreman (CC), Wepner (TD), Lyle (TD), Young (TD), Evangelista (TD), Shavers (TD), L. Spinks (CC)

Frazier: 3 years: Bonavena (x2), Chuvalo, Ramos, Quarry (x2), Ellis, Foster (TD), Ali (TDNC), Bugner

Foreman: 4 years: Chuvalo, Frazier (x2 CC +NC), Norton (TD), Lyle, Moorer (CC),

L. Spinks: 0 years: Ali (CC), Evangelista, Mercardo

Holmes: 5 years: Shavers (x2), Norton, Evangelista, Weaver, Zanon, Jones, LeDoux, Ali (CC), Berbick (TD), Spinks (TDNC), Cooney (TD), Cobb (TD) Witherspoon (TD), Smith (TD), Bey (TD), Williams (TD), Mercer

M. Spinks: 3 years: Holmes (x2, CC + TDNC)

Tyson : 2 years: Berbick, Smith, Thomas, Tucker, Biggs, Holmes (NC*), Spinks (CC) , Williams (TD), Ruddock (x2), Bruno, Seldon,

Douglas: 0 years: Page, Berbick, Tyson (CC)

Holyfield: 3 years: Thomas, Dokes, Rodrigues, Douglas (CC), Foreman (TDNC), Holmes (TDNC), Bowe (CC), Tyson (x2 NC), Moorer (NC), Rahman

Bowe: 1 year: Holyfield (x2 CC + NC), Hide, Golota (x2)

Moorer: 0 years: Holyfield (CC)

Briggs: 1 year: Foreman (CC), Lyakhovic

Lewis: 6 years: Ruddock, Tucker, Jackson, Butler, Mercer, Mccall, Akinwade, Golota, Briggs (CC), Holyfield (TDNC), Grant (TD), Tua (TD), Rahman (CC), Tyson (TDNC), V. Klitschko (TD)

Rahman: 0 years: Lewis (CC), Barrett

Notable contenders (using the criteria that as number 1/2 they never beat the number 1/2, nor did they beat "the man")

V. Klitschko: Kirk Johnson, Sanders, Williams, Peter, Gomez, Arreola, Kevin Johnson, Solis, Briggs (NC*)

W. Klitschko: 3 years: Byrd (x2), McCline, Peter, Brock, Brewster, Ibragimov, Thompson, Rahman (NC*), Chagaev, Chambers

 

It gives some interesting results. If I give each fighter: 1 point for every year they reigned and every past or future lineal champ they beat; 2 points for beating the current lineal champ; 3 points for every top 10 opponent they faced and 4 points for every time they defended vs a top 10 opponent, here is the ranking.

Louis
Ali
Holmes
Johnson
Charles
Lewis
Marciano
Patterson
Walcott
Holyfield
Jeffries
Dempsey
Sullivan
Sharkey
Frazier
Tyson
W. Klitschko
Liston
V. Klitschko
Baer
Corbett
Schmelling
Hart
Fitzsimmons
Foreman
Tunney
Willard
Carnera
Bowe
Burns
Braddock
M. Spinks
L. Spinks
Douglas
Johanneson
Briggs
Rahman
Moorer

 

I'm going to add wills, langford and norton to my database. Are there any other particular non champions anyone else can think of?

I also think my current system is slightly unfair; charles gets consistently rated highly but he beat some opponents multiple times, I need to factor that somehow, same with johnson.

 

Perhaps there isn't much difference at all. The thing is now, I have all the data I can just play around with the criteria pretty much.

Louis always seems to come top, moorer always seems to come bottom but aside from that there can be a lot of variation depending on how things get weighted.

 

Foreman and liston seem to rank quite low, but I guess once you get past the wow factor of them smashing the current champ, there isn't a lot that others haven't done before them, in terms of the numbers.

 

delete

 

What do you mean by adding the scores? I'll put anything up i'm just a bit unsure what you mean

 

When vitali was ranked number 2, lewis was champ. When he was ranked number 1, byrd was number 2 and they never fought.

When wlad was ranked number 1 maskaev was number 2, then peter, then vitali. He beat neither at this time.

Since lewis retired there has not been 1 man who has beaten 1/2 whilst ranked 1/2.

Briggs wasn't ranked, he is listed as a nonranked past champion.