All mentioned have wins over lineal heavyweight great s ,how'd you rank em ? Jess Willard -beat Johnson. Gene Tunney -beat Dempsey Ezzard Charles -beat Louis Leon Spinks -beat Ali Jimmy Young -beat Foreman Shannon Briggs -beat old Foreman Hasim Rahman -beat Lewis .
1) Gene Tunney over Jack Dempsey: One of the greatest signature victories in Heavyweight History. 2) Hasim Rahman over Lennox Lewis: Perfect right hand that put Lewis to sleep and his belts around Rahman's waist. This one edged Young vs Foreman because the lineal title was actually on the line. 3) Jimmy Young over Young George Foreman: I wanted to rank this second but it was a non-title fight, but the difficulty of the opponent who was one of the most dangerous in Heavyweight history gives Jimmy's win some very high marks. 4) Ezzard Charles over Joe Louis: It was a high bar for a comeback opponent. He definitely wasn't the Louis of old and he was fighting just for money at that stage. He picked up some decent wins against Savold and Bivins after losing to Charles. 5) Jess Williard over Jack Johnson: A past his prime fighter losing in the 26th round against a middling Heavyweight Champion. Johnson was pretty much on the way out and while he did fight for years to come it was strictly for money and his ambitions and waning ability never put him in a title path post Williard. Its's a good win but very symbolic; more end of an era than a passing of the torch. 6) Leon Spinks over Ali: Spinks beating an overweight faded Ali who had very little left to offer. 7) Shannon Briggs over Old George Foreman: Ranks last because Briggs got a gift decision.
IMO Charles is top tier ATG P4P and fringe ATG at heavyweight. Tunney was decent as a heavyweight, but not one of the greats IMO, but rates very well P4P. Dempsey was good, but had a fairly weak resume, he'd been out of it for a few years, and I don't think he was the same fighter. Willard got Johnson at the right time, but put in a very impressive performance, in a career that had some decent wins, but was otherwise unspectacular. I think Rahman was more just an awful fight by Lewis, but Rahman was a decent contender. Briggs's "championship" was awful, but he had some good moments too. I see Leon's fight as more just being how bad Ali was at that point, and his career overall was pretty weak. When I did the ranking of heavyweight champions 11. Ezzard Charles 25. Gene Tunney 33. Jess Willard 35. Hasim Rahman 40. Shannon Briggs 42. Leon Spinks I'll need to think about Young.
My list is basically this, so why bother writing it out? I would probably drop Young a couple of spots.
I get where your coming from with the J Young inclusion ,I was bit unsure whenever to throw him in .But he did round off George s first career so wondered how it may be ranked .
The interesting thing about this group of fighter is, if we ranked them according to how they fought the night of their biggest win over the ATG opponent, or we ranked these guys on how we view them all time, Shannon Briggs would likely finish last. But only Gene Tunney has a better all-time win-loss record than Briggs (who is 60-6-1 with 53 Kos). AND, and this is a big AND, after about age 35, Shannon Briggs probably beats the living hell out of all of them. Briggs is about to turn 47 years old, and he could still probably beat a number of heavyweights (if he could pass a PED test). By comparison, Ezzard Charles was curled up in a wheelchair by his 47th birthday. So it's kind of confusing. I'd say all of them were more impressive in their biggest wins than Briggs was getting a gift decision over an old Foreman. But I'd take Shannon Briggs to cave in the skulls of basically all of them once they all hit age 35 or so. In terms of longevity, Briggs is pretty freaking amazing. He's an enigma.