A fighter who's legacy relies almost entirely on beating one man?

Dont think so Fergy
Barry was a British and European champion and his wins over Juan Laporte and Bernard Taylor were excellent.I do recognise that all of these achievements tend to get over shadowed by the Pedrosa win

 

Byrd beat Vitali & Tua tho.

 

Joe Frazier, definitely. He was the first one who came to mind after beating Ali in 1971.

Take that win away and his standing in heavyweight history plummets like the Titanic.

 

Because other then the Louis win he had a case to have went 0-4 in his 4 toughest fights against Louis, Max Baer and Sharkey. Only 1 of those 4 fights was close. Schmeling otherwise didn't fight or beat most of the best HWs around. Outside of the Louis win and the Sharkey DQ Uzcudun was the best HW he beat. Striblings a HW champ but he started his career at Featherweight.

Uzcudun, Stribling, Walker, Hueser, Neusel, Risko, Foord, Dudas, Harry Thomas, Hamas, Deiner. Thats a fine list but none of those names are among the toughest HWs H2H of Schmelings era. Except maybe Uzcudcun. Its the same thing with Frazier except Frazier was more dominant and Frazier didn't beat 6 specific people. Foreman, Norton, Jimmy Young, Lyle, Holmes, Shavers. With Schmeling the number is closer to 20.

Names that are missing from Schmelings resume include Loughran, Braddock, John Henry Lewis, Tommy Farr, Carnera, Buddy Baer, Godoy, Pastor, Mann, Lou Nova and Schaaf. Any 1 of those 11 would be Schmelings best win except Louis.

Large HWs Schmeling didn't fight include Godfrey, Phil Scott, Art Lasky, Charlie Retzlaff, Pierre Charles, Abe Simon, Galento, Santa, Victorio Campolo, Valentin Campolo, Gastanaga, Roberti, Ray Impelletiere and Hankinson. Except Galento who was morbidly obese and Gastanaga who had a longer reach then Sonny Liston the other 12 would be Schmelings tallest win. As would Buddy Baer and Carnera. As would Larry Gains who knocked out Schmeling when he was 19.

Schmeling got stuck in Europe by WW2 when he had a few years left and could have fought some more of these HWs. I'm not saying its his fault I'm saying one win changed everything. It elevated Schmeling above a small army of HWs better then anyone else he'd beaten.

 

I don't rate Tua that high.

Byrd beat Holyfield in 2002 too but I think Byrd reputation on here is mainly from the Vitali people who think Lennox Lewis ducked him and that Vitali should have rematched him instead of fighting Sanders.

 

He definitely should have fought him after beating Sanders.

 

I object strenuously to naming Joe Frazier here. Joe tore through the heavyweight division in the late 1960s, capping off the decade with big wins over Jones, Machen, Chuvalo, Mathis, Quarry and Ellis. All of them brutal stoppages. And then knocking down and decisioning Ali. If you were watching boxing during those years you were wowed by one impressive Frazier win after another. He built a huge reputation before he and Ali met. That's WHY it was called the Fight of the Century!

 

Since I'm seeing Frazier mentions I think I'll mention Big George aswell. If we take away his decimation of Smoking Joe in Kingston then his resume reveals itself as being pretty lacking all things considered. Norton, ,Lyle, and Moorer are very good wins but would George have a case for being top 10 on the basis of those 3? Could he even be top 15? Outside of them there isn't really much of note.

 

Casuals don’t count.
Ask casuals about Ali they only really know him for his persona, ‘his best fight was that Africa one wasn’t it’.
Ask them about Tyson it’s just that he was good then went on to bite someone’s ear off.

 

Antonio Tarver beating Roy Jones?

Andy Ruiz beating Anthony Joshua?

David Diaz beating Erik Morales?

Zahir Raheem beating Erik Morales?

Vernon Forrest beating Shane Mosley?

Kelly Pavlik beating Jermaine Taylor?

Jermaine Taylor beating Bernard Hopkins?

O'Neil Bell beating Jean Marc Mormeck

Ruslan Chagaev beating Nicolai Valuev?

 

Calling me a brit? no call to insult me like that, son. Ha ha

Anyway you gotta say how you define what you mean by casual? If it’s the gen public, you ask them to name some boxers you will get Tyson an Ali an that’s about it. Causal boxing fans will name more, maybe Mayweather, pacman the sugar Rays an some of the the current boxers but theres no way they will tell you Ali fought cooper Norton Liston, Williams or terrell. Frazier an Foreman willl be about it.

 

He had some a couple of defences before losing to Jorge Vaca cuts going to scorecards, regaining but then losing to Marlon Starling and after taken apart by Mark Breland.

But mention the name Lloyd Honeyghan and Donald Curry's name is always mentioned soon after, great win but by far the highlight of his career.

 

Richard Dunn.