Evander Holyfield and his place in history

Lots of heart. A couple of good wins. His urine was an environmental pollutant when he was in training.

 

Muhammad Ali
Joe Louis
Jack Johnson
George Foreman
Larry Holmes
Lennox Lewis
EVANDER HOLYFIELD
Jack Dempsey
Jim Jeffries (VERY underated IMO, fought every good boxer of his era and only lost to Johnson 5 years after he retired)
Joe Frazier

Marciano, Wlad, Tyson and Liston not far behind (not necessarily in that order)

 

:nono Can't use mere potential for an ATG ranking.

 

Great fighter. One of the last great American heavyweights. Probably the 2nd best heavyweight resume behind only Ali. Didn't have much dominance but big wins over Tyson, Bowe, Holmes, Foreman, Moorer, Mercer, Dokes, and his very close rematch with Lewis matches him up with a who's who of heavyweight boxing. Dominance is what I'm looking for in my heavyweight resume criteria.

1.Ali/Louis

3.Dempsey
4.Holmes
5.Johnson
6.Marciano
7.Tyson
8.Lewis
9.Foreman
10.Frazier
11.Holyfield
12.Liston

 

I call Holyfield the second best Cruiser ever behind Juan Carlos Gomez 10 successful WBC defenses

at Heavy approx top 20 or better

these guys I rank ahead of evander

Jack Johnson
Dempsey
Joe Luis
Marciano
Ali
Holmes
Lennox
Wlad

He may be alot better than top 20 now I see my list.
I dont have a list etched in stone

 

1. Ali
2. Louis
3. Foreman
4. Johnson
5. Lewis
6. Holmes
7. Marciano
8. Frazier
9. HOLYFIELD
10. Liston
11. Dempsey
12. Tunney
13. Norton
14. Tyson
15. Bowe/Jeffries

 

You'd expect Tyson and Holyfield to beat jack Johnson. We can't say for absolute certain but the writing is pretty much on the wall. I personally have not watched that much of jack but I've read plenty on him. He faced unbelievable amounts of adversity and to be the first black heavyweight champion with virtually the whole of America against you. Every time you fight no one is cheering for you and only there to see you lose. If it wasn't for jack Johnson we may never have had a coloured champion to this day and blacks could still be treated as badly as back then. That means no Ali, no Frazier, no Foreman, no Holmes, no Lewis, no Holyfield, no Tyson etc.

 

This.

Evan fields...say no more.

 

Ken norton above Tyson and Bowe?? Lennox Lewis that far above Bowe/Tyson/Holyfield?

 

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Great fighter with so many comebacks just when ppl had him all but done

Number 1 cruiser no argument

Beat Tyson Douglas Mercer Moorer Foreman Holmes

only points against would be the KO to Toney the bad loss to Donald which got his license revoked

however he came close to dethroning Valuev

 

Norton beat Ali which is better than pretty much the whole of Tysons resume. Take into account you could argue Norton beating Ali 3 times then it's just out of the question. Close decision against Holmes aswell which could have gone either way and a big win over Jimmy YOung who is extremely underrated and this was when norton was passed his best.

Whenever Tyson faced great opposition he got KTFO. I don't base my rankings on what Tyson could have done in fantasy match ups, I do it on what they actually achieved.

Lewis dominated the 90s and early 00s which was arguably the best era for heavyweight boxing, apart from the 70s of course he. He fought virtually
everyone and beat them all which is one of the greatest ahcievements of any heavyweights. He also is one of the only heavyweights to win what I like too call a passing of the torch fight. Old, out of shape and unmotivated he beat the best heavyweight of the next era, who has gone on too dominate every opponent since.

Bowe ran scared of Lewis and knew what the result would have been if they fought. He only has 5 or so notable wins and 2 were against Holyfield. He had the potential much like Tyson to be a top 10 heavyweight but for different reasons he fell short.

I respect that you have disagreements and I respect the fact that many base there ATG heavyweight rankings more on a H2H basis and fighters potentials however I prefer to look at what they have achieved, who they fought and how they did against their opponents rather than how they would against others

 

1) Ali
2) Joe Louis
3) Lennox Lewis
4) Larry Holmes
5) George Foreman
6) Joe Frazier
7) Mike Tyson
8) Marciano
9) Wladimir Klitschko
10) Jack Johnson
11) Vitali Klitschko
12) Evander Holyfield

He comes in 12th in my eyes.

 

If holy aint in your top 10, your criteria is far far removed from mine.

 

vitali > holyfield :yikes