Cleveland Williams vs Deontay Wilder - Ring Rated contenders defeated?

And I think that is it, John.

 

Agreed. I actually think Wilder is/was probably better than some give him credit for, but his win resume is very poor relative to how good he probably is/was.

Come to think of it, whilst writing the above paragraph, I think I see why you have drawn this comparison.

 

Yup that is it.

 

He somehow has missed out on virtually all the top contenders of his era. If that's okay than what is the point of having a heavyweight division in the first place? Why not get rid of it?

 

Nothing wrong with 5 at all. Or did I misinterpret that.

Wilder seems to be basically retired at this point anyway. I doubt we will be getting many more big fights from him.

Mike Tyson had beaten more top contenders than Wilder has thus far by the end of 1987.

 

This is my opinion of ratings. The Ring has always rated people who are not one of the 10 best in their division. Ratings are a good indication of which fighters have connections. I don't know if Roy Williams, Larry Middleton, Jeff Merritt, Lionel Butler, etc., and other feared fighters like that were ever rated, but I'd sure take my chances with a Jean Pierre Coopman, Jack Bodell, Thad Spencer, Eduardo Corletti, Chuck Wepner, (all rated by The Ring) before I'd fight any of them. Especially if they got reasonable notice that the fight was taking place and had time to train.

In the 70s if a manager was offered a fight with either well known Joe Bugner or mostly obscure Roy Williams in two months and the pay and everything else was equal, I doubt any manager would pick Williams to fight his fighter. Nobody would want to face a prepared Williams. Same for Butler in his time, give him the time and preparation and he'd be sitting at home with no fights. The Ring ratings don't show how good a fighter is, there have always been good fighters who were not rated by The Ring.

 

I agree that there is no guarantee that the Ring magazine's top ranked 10 fighters are the best 10 fighters in the world at that time.

Imo, the number of top 10 ring magazine ranked opponents beaten is as good an objective, quantifiable, indicator as to quality of opponents beaten as exists.

Imo, regardless of ring magazine rankings, Wilder has beaten only 2 x fighters who were amongst the best 10 HWs in the world when he beat them.

 

Billy Daniels wasn't ranked in the Ring Top 10 when Williams fought him in September 1964.

If you're going by the write-up on Boxrec for Williams-Daniels 2 ...
https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/Cleveland_Williams_vs._Billy_Daniels_(2nd_meeting)

... the article is referring to the WBA/NBA ratings when describing the fight, not the Ring ratings.
https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/National_Boxing_Association's_Quarterly_Ratings:_1964

As you can see from the link, in August 64, before their second meeting, Williams was rated #2 by the WBA and Daniels was rated #8.

Ring didn't rank Daniels after his upset win over Doug Jones in 1964. They just dropped Jones down some slots.