In the Feb/March 1959 issue of the Ring Nat Fleischer stated he couldnt rank reigning champion Floyd Patterson in the top 20 all time heavyweights.He said he hadn't done enough to justify it. At that time he ranked the heavies as follows. 1.Johnson 2.Jeffries 3.Fitzsimmons 4.Dempsey 5.Corbett 6.Louis 7.Langford 8.Tunney 9.Schmeling 10.Marciano It would have been enlightening had Fleischer named the next ten whom he thought were better than Patterson ,but alas he did not do so. to be fair to Fleischer, Floyd had only defended his crown against , Jackson,Rademacher,and Harris at that point. His defences against London and Mcneeley were still to come as was his trilogy with Johansson. What do you think was Fleischer justified excluding Patterson from the top 20 all time heavies up to that point?
