Top 10: DEONTAY WILDER WEEKS ON LIST: 401 ANTHONY JOSHUA WEEKS ON LIST: 300 JOSEPH PARKER WEEKS ON LIST: 277 DILLIAN WHYTE WEEKS ON LIST: 241 LUIS ORTIZ WEEKS ON LIST: 189 TYSON FURY WEEKS ON LIST: 163 ANDY RUIZ JR. WEEKS ON LIST: 111 OLEKSANDR USYK WEEKS ON LIST: 31 ...
The list itself may not be entirely accurate but longevity at the top of the rankings is one indication of ability yes. Take Breazeale and Martin: both "top 10" ranked opponents when AJ beat them but only there for a few weeks or months, so it meant little if anything. If you've been on the list for several years or a decade, you are very likely to be a consistent fighter of high ability.
I think what it means is self-explanatory. It shows how long someone has been a good boxer. It doesn't show how good a particular boxer is.
Quite a bit of this longevity is that a generation that should have started fighting each other 400-500 weeks ago and be giving the next generation their shot now only just started mixing it up.
Longlivity says if a fighter is constantly near or at the top, it doesn't tell you who's the best out of the lot, unless there's a longtime champion. Obviously if you're arguably the best of the decade, you probably have a 4 or 500+ longlivity number. But a high longlivity number itself doesn't mean you ever were the best or even top5 of the era. For instance you can constantly hang around 7 to 10 for 15 years straight, always getting beaten by the top guys, while beating the guys below or just cherrypicking your way through opponents, eventually coming up with a 700+ number. Or like in Fury's case, fighting nobody's and a gatekeeper here and there... beating the top dog, getting banned for a couple of years, back to nobody's and gatekeepers, beating another one of the top guys twice... hence low number because of short high's and long low's.
Povetkin is the best example of what you explained. There are certainly 500+ weeks in the top 10 heavyweights. However, Povetkin was in the top 5. Well, his longevity still says something, because it is on a par with his legacy.
Longevity probably also means that the fighter has faced a lot of different styles and possibly over-lapping eras.
Why? Your thread title was 'longevity' not 'longevity at heavyweight'. I have a sneaky suspicion that this is a veiled anti- Usyk thread.
Yes, he was rated in the top 10 from 2006 to 2021 and top 5 from 2007 to 2021. At least top 5 is in the bag, maybe Patterson could challenge top 10.