I wont argue to much against Ortiz or Ike. Not much seperating alot of the all time greats, but i do have Holmes slightly higher.
Top heavyweights, 7 1Louis 2Ali 3Marciano 4Johnson 5Lewis 6Dempsey 7Holmes 8Jeff 9Tyson 10 Frazier or Foreman would fill this spot about right PFP Perhaps a little outside the top 50.
1. Ali 2. Johnson 3. Louis 4. Liston 5. Foreman 6. Marciano 7. Holmes 8. Dempsey 9. Jeffries 10. Frazier
1.Muhamad Ali 2.Joe Louis 3.Larry Holmes 4.Jack Johnson 5.George Foreman 6.Evander Holyfield 7.Mike Tyson 8.Lennox Lewis 9.Rocky Marciano 10.Joe Fraizer-Jack Dempsey
I'm not saying it's the sole reason, I'm talking about the legitimate reasonableness of having him in the top thirty in a fairly subjective exercise to begin with and the fact that very, very few champions in history come close to a reign like Holmes is very telling and adds to building his strong case for that. It doesn't mean other heavyweights couldn't have beaten the same people, it's about the kind of a consistent, dominant, lengthy reign that most will burn out, slip, etc, before accomplishing. It's an incredible achievement and suggesting otherwise is laughable to me.
Holmes is verry hard to place because he is verry strong on longevity, but arguably weak on quality of opposition and dominance. His career leaves a fair bit of room for interpretation. My interpretation is that he was under rated in his day and is probably a little over rated on this site.
I agree with this. I rank Holmes anywhere from 4-7 on my list. Had he rematched Spoon/Weaver and/or unified he would rank higher, he gets too much of a pass for this imo.
No doubt but so did every other top 10 Heavyweight. His best wins can be argued as weak when compared to some of these men. All relative of course. Norton, Mercer, Shavers, Cooney, Witherspoon etc. are all very good wins obviously.
WHo do you think is the greatest Native of all time? Im a huge fan of Little Red although he was half Mex.