greatest aura of invincibility

Out of the 3 you mentioned...George Foreman...he totally destroyed Joe Frazier...the man who beat Ali in 1971..(even though Joe left everything he had in the FOTC that night and was never the same...)...detroyed Ken Norton..who had beaten Ali in 1973...and broke his jaw...the press thought that Ali was making a HUGE mistake in fighting Foreman in 1974...that Ali was going to be KO'd...that his career was over after this fight...etc. We all know what happen in Zaire...after the Frazier fight in '73 they all said that Foreman would have destroyed Dempsey...Louis...Marciano...Liston...etc.

 

Olivares post Herrera! 69-1-1 with 65 KOs.

 

Yeah we all know that but this lasted for barely a year and a half ... he crushed Frazier in '73, demolished Norton in '74 and was KTFO by Ali in '74

It was like a a year and 9 months that he was considered invincible.

Liston is a little more tricky because we know that Foreman earned his reputation after the Frazier and Norton beatings. Liston was probably stated to be unbeatable around the Patterson fights or maybe even sooner ... he never got a title shot even though he had been deserving of one for a while ... and when he did he annihilated Patterson, and then he destroyed him again a year later ... and then the year after that, in '64, Ali tore down that cloak of invincibility.

Tyson was considered to be untouchable for nearly 5 years .... from about '86 to '90.

 

Im not arguing either way about whether SRL was invincible or not, its you who is going out of your way to dismiss him. I mean you even use the term 'not even close' yet, and with due respect to the great fighter Hearns was, Tommys campaign at lt-middle showed nothing to suggest 'invincibility' other than including 2 good wins over opponents that SRL had already beaten, as well as Tommy himself, yet tommy looks 'invincible and SRL is 'not even close'

Not to take away Tommys fine achievements but it looks like your judging them both to 2 different levels

 

Sullivan and Jeffries probably had the greatest aura of invincibility of any fighters in history.

The fact that there were fewer historic examples of supposedly invincible fighters getting beaten doubtless contributed.

 

Toney & RJJ.

 

Liston was considered unbeatable a while before the Patterson fights, that's why Patterson was so scared Sonny had demolished every person in the heavyweight division so that there was nobody else but him left for Patterson to fight

 

bad choice that...when he moved up to lacy / kessler territory he's was expected by many to lose

 

I think Benny leonard needs to be added to the list. Dempsey also got that title after the Firpo fight I belive. He was a big favorite going into the first Tunney fight, even with that 3 year lay off. So he had some aura around him.

Louis was other after he grab the title and rule with a iron fist.

I think number 1 should be Tyson, folllow by Foreman though. As a kid, seeing Tyson knock guys out in a round or 2, I didnt think he was ever going to lose. I didnt think he could be beating.

 

Yeah, you're probably right. But I still doubt it was as long as a reign as Tyson's.

 

I wouldn't say Tyson was thought to be unbeatable from his first professional fight it would of taken a little bit of time for him to be recognized as that, i would say it started around the 1986 mark or just pre to it so about 4-5 years, Listons in the way you look at it started 1956 but he had a 2 year break and really started around 1958 and went on until he met Ali in 1964 so 6 years, if you want to look at it from the Cleveland Williams fights as the start of his invincibility then it's 5 years although he was thought to be unbeatable before those 2 fights with Williams. The Williams fights just cemented him as being unbeatable even more

 

Good call ,Liston was perceived as unbeatable.:good

 

Hard to go past Tyson. He beat guys at the staredown.