Is Virgil Hill a top 20 - 25 light heavy?

Oh my...twenty? Yes...I think you kind of have to say twenty, at least. The difficult question is more IMO whether he cracks a top fifteen, or even twelve...and I don't even feel I'm especially pro-Hill...

 

My personal leaning is, for two long reigns with some quality and consistency of performances, right around 15...but no higher.

 

Yes. Top 20

 

Questioning whether he belongs inside 25 seems very stingy to me. No offense.

 

Yikes, 30? :scaredas:What forum's this?

 

A site whose own computerized point rankings system has Quicksilver at #16.

 

Top 12 if you want to base on things like record and performance but I know there are more important criteria...

 

If he's a top 15-20, where does that put Roy Jones?

 

Top 15? NO WAY.

Top 20? No.

Top 25? Not exactly. Almost

Top 26-30? Perhaps for now, but I think the light heavyweight division has a lot of talented new comers in it, that will push Hill out over the course of the next 10 years.

Hill lost his biggest fights by wide margin, and barley edged some merely decent guys in title fights.

 

A little behind.


Jones' 175lb wins (championship & notable):
McCallum
Griffin
Hill * (technically a cruiserweight bout, fought at the contracted 177lb catchweight)
Del Valle
Grant
R. Frazier
Johnson
Telesco
Hall
Harding
Harmon
Gonzalez
Kelly
Woods
Tarver
Ajamu
Hanshaw
Trinidad
Sheika
Lacy

Jones' 175lb Losses:
Griffin
Calzaghe
Johnson
Tarver x2
Hopkins

20-6

Hill's 175lb wins:
Stewart
Angulo
Emebe
Hassan
Featherstone
Czyz
Lasisi
Kinchen
Vedder
T. Frazier
Peak
Mwale
Tate x2
Washington
Tiozzo
Merani
Montana
Waters
Ashley
Thadzi
Del Valle
Maske

Hill's 175lb losses:
Hearns
Michalczewski
Jones * (technically a cruiserweight bout, fought at the contracted 177lb catchweight)

23-3


Hill edges him on quantity, slightly, and if you distill the real quality from the filler on both records they're probably similar.
(Del Valle cancels himself out, then you have Maske, Czyz, Kinchen, Tiozzo, and Tate x2 vs. McCallum, Griffin, Harding, Woods, and Tarver...)

Even with the h2h result (which technically wasn't at light heavyweight, if you want to be cheap about it - and besides, was smack in the middle of Jones' prime but well past Hill's, and that isn't being cheap) Jones comes in just behind.

None of the wins frequently cited as Jones' best (Toney, Hopkins, Ruiz) occurred at the weight. (Griffin and McCallum are usually called #4 and #5, in either order)

Jones did have one more title defense at 11 than Hill's 10, but Zsolt Erdei had 16 and we probably aren't using that as basis to say Erdei ranks ahead of Jones, I'm guessing...

Now, were it a h2h list, it would of course look much different and Jones would rank much higher than Hill. Not least of all because of the way he whipped him in their actual meeting (and no, I don't think it would've gone all that much differently had both of them been in their primes)

 

Not top 30 all-time? Give me a break.

Name 30 (or 40) light heavyweights with better credentials than Hall of Famer Virgil Hill?


Virgil Hill
Amateur Record: 288-11
1984 Olympic Silver Medalist

Pro Record: 50-7
Two-time Light Heavyweight Champion
Two-time Cruiserweight Champion

Total Number of Successful Light Heavyweight Title Defenses: 20 (second all-time at the weight)

Number of Champions/Titleholders Faced: 14
Arslan, Maske (twice), Mormeck (twice), Lalonde, Tiozzo (twice), Jones, Michalczewski, Del Valle, Tate (twice), Washington, Hearns, Czyz, Stewart, Camel

Record against Champs/Titleholders: 11-7 (and three of those losses came when Hill was in his 40s)

Overall Record in Title fights: 24-5
Record in Light Heavyweight Title fights: 22-2

Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame