Justifiable list. As Cross Trainer posted, all depends on criteria. Dominance. Longevity. Quality of opposition. Meeting the best available. One point on Dempsey and the argument that he meant so much to boxing's popularity. I think one should at least question whether the explosion at the gates in the 1920's was due to Dempsey's popularity or if Dempsey's popularity itself was due to the across the board explosion of popularity in sports. The massive venues like Yankee Stadium, Soldier's Field, and Municipal Stadium were built for baseball or football. Big fights were a relatively rare event at these venues. Or take for example Red Grange. Was he that good or that exceptional? Or was he only the right man at the right time when the "in thing" for college kids was to put on a coonskin coat and guzzle bootlegged booze at a football stadium? So Grange comes down to us across the decades as the best known old football player. To get to the bottom line--I don't think celebrity should play a role in judging greatness. I think it too dependent on outside factors beyond accomplishment.
Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Lennox Lewis, Larry Holmes, Wlad Klitschko, Vitali Klitschko, George Foreman, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield & Riddick Bowe. IMO, those are the 10 best heavyweights ... not counting active heavyweights. *Ali, Louis, Lewis, Klitschko, Klitschko, Holmes, Foreman, Tyson, Holyfield and Bowe* Put them in any order you like, but they are the very best world heavyweight champions head-to-head. Some had long primes, some had very brief primes. But, at their absolute best, they beat everyone NOT included among them. Jack Johnson doesn't beat any of them at their best. Neither does Jeffries, or Marciano or certainly not Sullivan, Corbett or Fitz ... not even Joe Frazier or Liston or Dempsey. None of them score a single win against those 10 when those 10 are at their very best. *Ali, Louis, Lewis, Klitschko, Klitschko, Holmes, Foreman, Tyson, Holyfield and Bowe*
Holmes out of 5. Watched every fight of his as a kid and was duck city, a propped up fighter of the first order. Lewis 5 if not higher. Bowe T10 who gave what he got just was never focused enough to make the next step happen but could go with the best of them he was right. Not top 10 is fair, just my top ten.. Alot of the old school guys were certainly great with Liston just mean while owned by the mob wholesale. But if you didnt have a Joe Frazier to face then it is what it is. Andrea Ward was as good as there ever was but never had a Joe Frazier either to put him in the annals with an Ali.
I remember in the 80's seeing the Top 5 being almost identical: 1.) Ali 2.) Louis 3.) Dempsey 4.) Johnson 5.) Marciano I guess they haven't changed their minds much.
