Fighters with the biggest post-career reputation boosts?

Eh, tomato, tomarto

 

I rank Lewis at 3-4 all-time. I have had him there since he retired.

He is very solid there for me as he makes that grade both with resume and h2h 'eye test.'

 

Greb will always have a question mark on account of us not being able to see him in action.

 

The myth of Sonny Liston is still growing with new believers every year.

 

He wasn't even considered top 10 material until the 70s, and usually was placed below guys like Louis, Johnson and Marciano in the 80s

 

So true, the entire message board here was:

Old Lummox Lewis was holding the belt hostage, ducking Byrd and Ruiz, and would get knocked over by a stiff breeze. Only reason he won was because he put his opponents to sleep and the late 90’s-mid 00s was the worst heavyweight division since the 30s.

 

Sonny Liston seems to have recently recieved a big boost.

 

And the myth of Dempsey and Marciano's power still keeps them head and shoulders above everyone else

 

Sam Langford.
Larry Holmes.

 

Agreed. It's actually pretty hard to find glowing praise for him around his own time and off great trainers. For example you don't see Eddie Futch mention him much at all where as he mentioned plenty of others around that time. Other lesser fighters have a lot more testimony i reckon. Look at Burley, a great fighter for sure but one who Charles pumped not once but twice when Charles himself was a relative juvenile and at a slightly fragile stage of his own career before he filled out post war.

It's somewhat strange.

 

This. People are putting him above Robinson in p4p lists now - I can’t imagine anyone did that during his and Robinson’s fighting years.

 

Eusebio Pedroza. Considered by most as the secondary champion throughout his whole career, now generally considered the favorite against Little Red and more or less even with Sanchez.

 

Packey McFarland.

 

His resume is outstanding of course, but he wasn't necessarily a guy that seemed to sparkle in the ring like a SRR and had his share of underwhelming performances. He was also unfortunate to become world champion after Joe Louis and then beat Louis in the ring, which didn't help matters - somewhat similar to Larry Holmes after Ali. That could help explain some of the ambivalence shown towards him during his career.

 

That would explain some but from 46 to 51 he beat Moore x 3 including a ko, Bivins multiple times, Marshall multiple times, Smith multiple times, Maxim multiple times, Louis, Walcott multiple times and any amount of other notable contenders. His only loss was to Elmer Ray and that was disputed and avenged by KO less than 12 months later. He also weighed under 175 for this vs Ray's 194 odd.

That is some serious work right there and lots of it prior to even winning the heavyweight strap. I often wonder how much he was hurt by being frozen out of the 175 title and not actually getting his shot at winning it. He would have won it - he soundly defeated the owner of the title (Maxim) both sides of his title winning fight in over the weight bouts.