Drawed with Earnie Shavers in the fight that majority of observers felt like he should have won Beat Ron Lyle Outboxed the shyte out of Muhammad Ali even tho he didn't get the decision Beat Ron Lyle again Beat George Foreman Had a close fight with Ken Norton that majority of observers felt like he should have won He also beat Richard Dunn, Jose Luis Garcia and Jose Roman. He was competetive against every top fighter from the 70's except for Frazier who he didn't fight. You can argue he beat Ali, Foreman and Norton. Is this the greatest stretch by a non-ATG in the heavyweight boxing history? And for the people who rate fighters only on the basis of how they did in they absolute peak: shouldn't Jimmy be a Top 4 HW of the 70's?
Even if Young is ahead of Norton in the 70s, he cannot be the top 4, because they are ahead: Ali, Foreman, Frazier, and Holmes. And if all these debatable decisions were awarded in Young's favor he would be ATG. The 70s would undoubtedly be poorer without Young.