Ok. I know what I am about to propose will generate arguments but I'm looking for some assistance. I have set up a hypothetical tournament for the top 200 Heavyweight fighters of all time. I realize 200 is a lot, but that's what I'm going with. I've drawn heavily from the work of Matt McGrain and Brian Wilbur and their respective top 100 Heavyweights lists, as well as the work of Cliff Rold's top 25 Heavyweights, Scott Levinson's Top 10 Heavyweights at proboxingfans.com, the all time Heavyweight Rankings from both the IBRO and BoxRec, as well as the historical year by year Heavyweight rankings of Ring Magazine. This event will be simulated on TBCB 2013. The setup is as follows. 1. 200 total participants seeded from 1-200 2. The top 128 seeds are double elimination, while the bottom 72 seeds are out after 1st loss. 3. A title holder of any of the 4 major belts (WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO), as well as any fighter who was the World Colored Heavyweight Champion gets an automatic bid into the top 200. 4. A lineal champion gets an automatic bid into top 128. What I'm looking for input on is the losers bracket fighters, or the bottom 72. I realize my top 128 is certainly nowhere near perfect and there is TONS of room for debate about the seeding order and who is in the top group, but that group is pretty well set. 129-200 is a different story. I'm going to post the top 128 I have in order for reference. The rest of the names are who I currently have included but am looking for suggestions on order or other fighters I've overlooked.
Here is top 128: 1 Muhammad Ali 2 Joe Louis 3 George Foreman 4 Larry Holmes 5 Jack Johnson 6 Rocky Marciano 7 Joe Frazier 8 Lennox Lewis 9 Jack Dempsey 10 Evander Holyfield 11 James J. Jeffries 12 Sonny Liston 13 Mike Tyson 14 Ezzard Charles 15 Sam Langford 16 Jersey Joe Walcott 17 Gene Tunney 18 Harry Wills 19 Wladamir Klitschko 20 James J. Corbett 21 Riddick Bowe 22 Floyd Patterson 23 Ken Norton 24 Max Schmeling 25 Max Baer 26 Bob Fitzsimmons 27 Vitali Klitschko 28 Peter Jackson 29 Joe Jennette 30 John L. Sullivan 31 Jack Sharkey 32 Jimmy Young 33 Sam McVey 34 Tommy Burns 35 Tom Sharkey 36 Ingemar Johansson 37 Jerry Quarry 38 Jimmy Ellis 39 Tim Witherspoon 40 Ron Lyle 41 Ernie Terrell 42 Primo Carnera 43 Bob Pastor 44 Michael Moorer 45 Eddie Machen 46 Fred Fulton 47 Archie Moore 48 James "Buster" Douglas 49 Elmer Ray 50 Jess Willard 51 Jimmy Bivins 52 Chris Byrd 53 Zora Folley 54 Oscar Bonavena 55 Billy Miske 56 Earnie Shavers 57 Marvin Hart 58 Hasim Rahman 59 Ernie Schaaf 60 Tommy Loughran 61 Billy Conn 62 James J. Braddock 63 Mike Weaver 64 Tommy Gibbons 65 Oliver McCall 66 David Tua 67 Ray Mercer 68 Donovan Ruddock 69 Joey Maxim 70 Joe Bugner 71 John Ruiz 72 Rex Layne 73 Harold Johnson 74 Trevor Berbick 75 Geroge Chuvalo 76 Pinklon Thomas 77 Steve Hamas 78 Harry Greb 79 Joe Choynski 80 Michael Spinks 81 Nino Valdes 82 Kid Norfolk 83 Gerry Cooney 84 George Godfrey 85 Tony Tucker 86 Tommy Jackson 87 Joe Goddard 88 Roland LaStarza 89 Tommy Farr 90 Johnny Risko 91 Bob Baker 92 Maxie Rosenbloom 93 Larry Gains 94 Arturo Godoy 95 Tony Tubbs 96 Greg Page 97 Luis Firpo 98 John Henry Lewis 99 Paulino Uzcudun 100 Tony Galento 101 Michael Dokes 102 Leotis Martin 103 Ike Ibeabuchi 104 Henry Cooper 105 Lou Nova 106 Jack Dillon 107 Buddy Baer 108 Luther McCarty 109 Joe Baksi 110 Mickey Walker 111 Walter Neusel 112 Jack Renault 113Gus Ruhlin 114 Peter Maher 115 Denver Ed Martin 116 Bob Satterfield 117 Young Stribling 118 Charley Weinert 119 James "Bonecrusher" Smith 120 Cleveland Williams 121 Corrie Sanders 122 Tyson Fury 123 Lee Q. Murray 124 Lamon Brewster 125 Johnny Summerlin 126 Tommy Morrison 127 Leon Spinks 128 Shannon Briggs
Good for you buddy, but I can't get my old head around 200 fighters, so will leave this exercise to the younger posters. look forward to the outcome.
And the rest. I realized I've excluded Roy Jones Jr. He had one fight at Heavyweight and since the weight gain and subsequent loss for that single fight essentially ended Roy Jones Jr. as a quality fighter I'm not counting him as a Heavyweight. I've put * next to the automatic inclusions. Remember these are DEFINITELY not completely seeded yet. 129 Francesco Damiani * 130 Gerrie Coetzee * 131 Frank Bruno * 132 Oleksandr Usyk * 133 Gregorio Peralta 134 Zeljko Mavrovic 135 Harry Matthews 136 Bob Cleroux 137 Roscoe Toles 138 Obie Walker * 139 Anthony Joshua * 140 Deontay Wilder * 141 Nikolai Valuev * 142 Bearcat Wright 143 Clarence Henry 144 Turkey Thomspon 145 Karel Sys 146 Gary Mason 147 Mac Foster 148 Hank Griffin 149 George Carpentier 150 James Toney 151 Tuffy Griffiths 152 Lee Ramage 153 Renaldo Snipes 154 Jack Trammell 155 Alexander Povetkin * 156 David Haye * 157 Ruslan Chagaev * 158 Oleg Maskaev * 159 Bruce Seldon * 160 Sultan Ibragimov * 161 Frank Childs * 162 Andy Ruiz Jr. * 163 Tami Mauriello 164 Andrew Golata 165 Karl Mildenberger 166 Michael Bentt * 167 Michael Grant 168 Alberto Santiago Lovell 169 Calvin Brock 170 Bernardo Mercado 171 Chris Arreola 172 Brian Nielsen 173 Fres Oquendo 174 Samuel Peter * 175 Buster Mathis 176 Carl Williams 177 Bermane Stiverne * 178 Herbie Hide * 179 Mike DeJohn 180 Joseph Parker* 181 Siarhei Liakhovich * 182 Don Cockell 183 Bill Tate * 184 Bruce Woodcock 185 Henry Akinwande * 186 Gunboat Smith 187 King Levinsky 188 John Tate * 189 Kubrat Pulev 190 Manuel Charr * 191 Pierre Coetzee 192 Charles Martin * 193 Joe Erskine 194 Nathan Mann 195 Jack Petersen 196 Frank Slavin 197 Lee Savold 198 Jim Maloney 199 Lucas Browne * 200 Pierre Charles
It's funny, I can't imagine seeding Toney very high, but I think he beats quite a few fighters on this list.
Helpful suggestion: There have been 14 decades in boxing, it makes sense to just look at the top 15 from each decade and remove the 10 least worthy. Hopefully helpful criticism: The top 8 from each decade should probably get a spot, or if you really favor certain eras, at least admit the top 6 from each decade. Your list looks like you really, really favor certain eras. Povetkin, who was ranked in the top 5 for like 13 years is ranked 155 but Peter Jackson is ranked inside the top 30.
The top 128 is primarily based on other people's rankings. I made just a few adjustments, but less than 10. I am 100% flexible in the 129-200 ordering.
Well, I would say neither Chris Arreola nor Stiverne should be ranked in the top 200. Arreola was basically a journeyman who managed to secure title fights for no reason other than that he was fat and easy win. Axel Schulz should really be top 200. He had 3 title fights, including against old Foreman, he went 0-2-0-1, but all three fights were controversial, with most fans thinking he won two, the other was controversial and Moorer tested positive for PEDs afterwards. He's the definition of an unfortunate contender. I'm actually going to go and think of some fighters, and try to help the top 200. I'll try to search and find guys who might be better for the 129-200 ranks. I'd definitely stick Schulz in, though. Look into his career.
Schulz is a solid choice. Tex Cobb is another one I've considered. Stiverne only creeps in. Same for Michael Bentt.
