Best five wins from the best contenders

Are you serious about Beckett? he was useless at this kind of level. Coffey was beter than Cowler too and probably Wells and Palzer. But yuo're bang on correct that Moran's resume is pathetic.
1-Coffey
2-Palzer
3-Wells
4-Horn
5-Logan
ps nearly had to put Beckett in! HaHa

 

Thanks for the reply and perspective. I am certain you know more about these Brit fellows than I do. Palzer is interesting and I plan posting on him in the next few days.

 

Bivins, what a resume of depth!
oh, I'll go;
1-Murray
2-Pastor
3-Maxim
$-Mauriello 2
5-Bettina
and there fore leave off Henry(bit green) DeJohn(what a way to end your career) Savold, Moore and Charles(yeah Moore was giving too much weight and the Charles bout wasn't at heavy) Coley Wallace and a ton more, if somebody came up with a top 5 picks without any of mine, i could understand it.

 

Norton;
1----Muhammad Ali
2----Jimmy Young
3----Jerry Quarry
4----Larry Middleton
5----Henry Clark

 

Al Palzer was a big White Hope Era heavyweight who seems to have been taken seriously as a top contender. He was 6' 3" and well over 220 lbs. His total record is 9 wins, 7 losses, with 6 KO's.

Al Palzer
1----Al Kaufman
2----Bombardier Billy Wells
3----Fred Fulton

Palzer was apparently viewed as a possible coming champion after KO'ing Kaufman and Wells. He was matched with Luther McCarty for the "White" championship and was stopped in 18 rounds. Later he was stopped in 7 rounds by Frank Moran which elevated Moran into a title shot against Johnson. Palzer managed one last big win by knocking out a young Fred Fulton, before his career and life were cut short by his being killed by his father in a domestic dispute.

A weak resume for someone who was one fight from a Johnson challenge and served as a direct stepping stone into a title fight. Palzer has only three names which matter.

 

It wasnt that weak. He was killed at 25 or so, which meant that he really was one with unfulfilled potential, arguably in the mold of Luther McCarthy. He was still developing, and seems like one of he promising great white hopes, although perhaps the infatuation of the times which size skewed opinions of him?

It is a shame we didnt get to see a few more years.

 

Harold Johnson

1) Ezzard Charles
2) Eddie Machen
3) Jimmy Bivins
4) Nino Valdes
5) Clarence Henry

Still can't get myself to include Archie here as all their fights were at or just about at light heavy. But it's just my criteria on the subject.

Oscar Bonavena

1) Zora Folley
2) George Chuvalo
3) Karl Mildenberger
4) Leotis Martin
5) Al 'Blue' Lewis

I know the Lewis fight was won on a DQ, but from the various things I've read on the fight, Bonavena was winning until Lewis butted himself out of the fight. Too good a scalp not to include.

 

Thanks for the reply because any input on such an obscure fighter helps clarify things.

I have to disagree strongly though.

According to box rec, Palzer was born on 1/1/1890. In his first 11 fights he had one NC, two newspaper ND's, and 8 victories, including the KO's of Kaufman and Wells.

In his 12th fight, he had another newspaper ND with Tony Ross. box rec credits Ross with winning, with Palzer also docked for losing his other two ND's to Moran and Tom Kennedy. At the time though, I doubt if these newspaper decisions really meant anything so Palzer was effectively undefeated going into his bout with Luther McCarthy in early 1913. And he was only 23. The rest of his record:

1913 Luther McCarty--KO by 18
1913 Frank Moran--KO by 7
1913 Charley Miller--ND (credited by box rec as a newspaper win for Miller)
1913 Dan Daily--KO by
1914 Fred Fulton--KO
1915 Andre Anderson--KO by

Palzer was killed on 7/26/1917. It looks to me like his career as a contender was over, unless he made a very unexpected comeback.

 

Oscar Bonavena

1----Karl Mildenberger
2----Gregorio Peralta
3----Zora Folley
4----Leotis Martin
5----George Chuvalo

I put Folley third because he was old. Others-Blue Lewis, Amos Johnson, Larry Middleton. The men Bonavena actually defeated are a good, but not outstanding, list. However, he could have gotten the decision against Patterson, and I think he should have gotten the decision in the first Frazier fight. With Frazier, his resume would be outstanding. With Frazier and Patterson, his resume would be very outstanding.

I think an underrated contender.

 

Harold Johnson

1--Ezzard Charles
2--Archie Moore
3--Jimmy Bivins
4--Eddie Machen
5--Clarence Henry

not making the cut-Bob Satterfield, Nino Valdes, Arturo Godoy, Doug Jones, Wayne Bethea. Satterfield could be considered but was very erratic. Valdes was not yet a contender. Godoy aging.

This is an extremely impressive group of names, led by three Hall of Famers, and continuing with top contenders and good men who can't make his top five.

 

Muhammad Ali
1. George Foreman
2. Sonny Liston
3. Joe Frazier.
4. Ken Norton
5. Floyd Patterson