Johnson, Louis, Ali, Dempsey, Marciano

Any list that doesn't have Johnson in the Top Ten HW of all time isn't much of a list at all. I can see him not being in the top ten of some HW h2h lists, and while I strongly disagree.. I can at least see it. In an over all top ten list, no way no how can he not be in there.

 

Janitor, it certainly is open to question, as all such lists are, and Jeffries is certainly a strong candidate for inclusion. However, using Ali as the cut off point, I think the 5 most popular choices would likely be (in chronological order):

Johnson, Dempsey, Louis, Marciano & Ali.

 

As time goes by we historians will want to shoe horn new champions into a bulging top ten. The top 15 will all become top ten worthy champions before too long. It is a bit sad because the replacements are often only the equals and not actual replacements for those pushed outside the list. The criteria of a top ten will change as the sport changes. great fighters long gone or present now will be measured by the standards of the future. I myself have Holmes within the top 5 at the expence of Johnson but I aknowledge that Johnson was part of the original top 5. Truth is Johnson, Dempsey, Louis, marciano and Ali were the first 5 great HW champions of the modern era. They are the yardstick.

In the future I think the fair thing to do is to say a champion is "top 5 level" or "top 2 level" because there is (or will) simply be too much history to fit everyone in.

Boxing is a sport of levels.


1.joe louis
2 muhammad ali
3 rocky marciano
4 dempsey
5 holmes
6 johnson
7 lennox lewis
8 hollyfield
9 foreman
10 tyson

 

His mafia ties put a lot of people off, too. Frankie Carbo was a bad dude, and he had the biggest piece of Sonny. And people knew it.

Today, people seem to forget about or ignore that aspect of Liston's career entirely and assume people were only afraid of Liston, the fighter. That's romanticizing things.

 

Yeah,...ok...

 

All were Great for there times and stood out as great

 

Those 5 are in the discussion for sure. The only legit candidates for top spots are Ali and Louis. After that a group of 5-8 that could all be number 3 and so on.

 

Someone mentioned "levels". That's basically how I rank the ATGs. It's the only way I feel like I can be fair in my assessment.

1. Joe Louis
1. Muhammad Ali
3. Jack Johnson
3. Jack Dempsey
3. Rocky Marciano
6. *George Foreman
6. Larry Holmes
6. Evander Holyfield
9. James J. Jeffries
9. Lennox Lewis
11. Vitali Klitschko
11. Wladimir Klitschko
13. Joe Frazier
14. Sonny Liston
15. Mike Tyson

 

ughh...

Surely, Lennox Lewis being equated with that novice midget beater Jeffries has put me off my feed for a week.

 

James J. Jeffries had superior chest hair. This is inarguable.

 

Jeffries was one of the best heavyweights ever.