I think it's not debatable that he should be in the top 5 heavyweights of all time. he ranks #3 on my list, below Louis and Ali. Also, how does do in head to head matchups..? I think on his best night He has a very very good chance of whooping all of them.
Then he's close to top 5. He beat pretty good comp in mercer, witherspoon, snipes, norton, cooney, weaver, shavers, and marvis frazier. He reigned very very long and came close to tieing with Joe Louis Owned probably the best left jab in the buisness and was a very skilled boxer and he could fight anyway, outside, inside, or mid range. and he was a body puncher. I think he ranks in the top 5....
One of the most over rated imo. Around 7 or 8. Mostly failed to unify title, give rematchs, and failed to meet the best of his day. Also had way too many 10-0 guys in title defenses.
Unifying doesn't mean **** when you've been a solid belt holder while the other clowns keep trading off after each defense...... Larry Holmes was so good in the early 80s that he could've tossed both the WBC and IBF titles in the trash and he'd still be the champ of that era..... SR.BILL:deal
Not saying he was the best of his era. But compare to what other guys did in there era vs what Holmes did, Holmes falls behide imo. The only real guys I rank over Holmes is Ali, Louis, Marciano, mid 80's Tyson for cleaning up the mess Holmes didnt do, Jack Johnson, Lewis, and perhaps Holyfiled or Foreman, though they didnt clean out there eras. But I put them around with Holmes.
The thing with Heavyweight lists is that it drops off so sharply after Ali and Louis. All these little points - unification, rematches etc. - become so significant according to personal criteria that you're bound to get big swings. I like Holmes at #3.
He's top three for me. He had combination of jab, height, reach, mobility, toughness, resilience and intelligence to potentially defeat everybody else with all at their best. Longevity is off the charts. Aside from a peak Holyfield and a peak Tyson (who caught him when he wasn't properly prepared, rusty and misfiring), nobody was able to decisively beat him. Ali was the fastest heavyweight of all time. Legendary punch resistance during his championship years. Endurance is sometimes overlooked, but he had two stoppages in round 15, and nearly had two more. (Manila and Shavers.) The Dempsey of Toledo rounds out my top three. If it hadn't been for that cockamamie first round knockout bet by Kearns, we might have seen more of him. (Jack was surprisingly patient for that first 1:30 considering what Doc had just told him about their all or nothing bet. I'd have expected Dempsey to charge out right into a haymaker, like he did with Firpo.) Louis and Frazier round out my top five. (Even if Foreman would have always had Smoke's number, I believe Frazier would have beaten more of history's other greats at his 1969-1971 peak.) I didn't really follow boxing after the abolition of the championship distance. As a former fan, I can't fairly rate competitors of the post classic era in good conscience.