A comparison of Liston and Usyk's best opponents

He'd probably done as Johnson, Moore, Pastrano etc and fought at both.

 

Sure. If they could, why couldn't RJJ? Or Montell Griffin? Or Beterbiev?

 

I didn't know we were comparing them.

 

Mchunu was 206 in the ring.

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Mchunu would be a bonafide Heavyweight in the 1954-1970 time frame of Liston. Today's "cruisers" essentially are heavyweights. Evander Holyfield weighed 205 pounds when he fought Bowe for the 1st time and 208 pounds when he won the title. In his prime, Liston weighed not much more than 206 pounds. He was in the low 210s. He was 212 pounds vs Williams and 211 pounds vs Folley and Harris.

 

So why not rate Liston as a cruiserweight/light heavyweight given that's what his opponents were by today's standards. Isn't that a reasonable stance?

Realistically Usyk only fights once a year so a long run at heavyweight is not likely to happen

 

Truth be told, Wilder could have fought as a Cruiser weight. He weighed as low as 215 pounds. The same as many cruisers on fight night. I think they ought to merge the Cruiser division back into the Heavyweight division.

If Cruiser was meant as intended, for 176-199 pound guys to fight, that would be fine. But with day before weigh ins, you're having heavyweights fighting under the name of cruiserweight.

 

There is no minimum weight for HW and this logic would require the vast majority of HW champs to be rated as members of weight classes as low as SWW. Bridgerweight for example isn't setting a HW minimum. Are we going to start rating 200-225ers Bridgerweights?

Generally for a fight to not be HW they would both need to be under the limit when said weight class existed. For example 2 guys fighting at 175-200 in the 60s are still fighting at HW and 2 guys fighting at 160-175 in 1895 are still fighting at HW. But once those weight classes existed those would be CW and LHW fights. But only with both fighters under the limit.

 

When you state: "They really do count", do you genuinely intend for people to accept the Cruiserweight ratings you have listed as Heavyweight ratings?

You started out by suggesting this exercise "would be fun" and it is interesting to the extent of it being a selectively detailed cross-era comparison. But the point being made is that you can't, in any serious sense, shoehorn the Cruiserweight ratings into Heavyweight ratings and view this as a legitimate heavyweight resume comparison.