Most shameless title defences of all time

I imagine he's not in some top 10s due to a crappy reigns as champion. Like I said, if he's such a lock, why doesn't he tend to appear in those late 70s, 80s and early 90s lists?

 

Because he wasn’t done achieving yet?

 

There's that...and the fact that his first career simply doesn't merit a place...hence why he didn't tend to get one.

 

Wouldn't have helped that he was extremely unpopular too. Holmes was thought of as under-rated for a long time & I have to suspect his demeanour was involved in that.

 

I'm not very good at lists but off the top of my head these are some Heavyweights that could be rated higher than Foreman.

Ali
Louis
Lewis
Holmes
Wladimir
Marciano
Tyson
Holyfield
Dempsey
Johnson
Frazier

So I agree 11 is not out of the question although I have Foreman in my top 10.

 

A lot hinges on how one ranks (head-to-head, accomplishments only, or a mix of the two), but I can’t imagine the mental gymnastics needed to get Frazier & Marciano above Foreman. & if crappy title reigns are an issue Holmes is in trouble too. The 1980’s were horrendous.

 

Well accomplishments mean a lot more than head-to-head for me and by crappy title reigns, this would mean short and not that sweet. Also, why can't Frazier be above Foreman? After all, as someone said in 1971 after FOTC, "Frazier left all his fight in the ring and whoever fights him next is lucky".

 

I do rate George ahead of Joe by the way, just sayin'. I do like a good comeback.

 

I only rank on accomplishments personally. Those are real, head-to-head is fun, but fantasy. I can’t rank on what might happen, but people do. Frazier is my favourite fighter of all-time…if I thought I could make a case for him above Foreman, I assuredly would.

 

And after that punch, a handful of heavyweights put together very solid careers.

 

With all respect to Foreman you can say it about his entire comeback .. he match made and promoted himself brilliantly ... his first incarnation he emulated Liston and his second was his version of Muhammad Ali, likable and funny ...

 

Foremans combeback SOS was much much better than Holmes.

For their title reigns Holmes obviously has more volume but Foreman fought the 5 best other 70s HWs. Foreman doesn't have the same quantity of big wins as an Louis, Ali, Holmes or Wlad but his number of big wins isn't bad at all.

 

Completely agree. Hagler was one of those rare guys who maintained the rage and dedication and always gave himself the best chance of winning his fight. Pure professionalism.....no self sabotage for Marvin.

 

Not out of the ring, which is commendably rare & probably his greatest asset. Inside the ropes though he blew it against Leonard, rather than being beaten by the better man. It was his fight to lose, & he did.

 

I've been harping on Hagler's lack of adaptability against the trickiest guys since i joined here. Some debates went many many pages.

At the end of the day tho it took a special fighter to give him pause and i blame his corner as much as anything. They weren't up to the task when the water got deep a couple of times.

Hagler did hurt himself against Leonard but there were a lot of things in play. It's not 100% given that coming out any lefty guarantee's the win because Leonard was fresh then and too quick for an old Hagler. May state he should have went balls to the wall as he did vs Hearns. for starters it was the only time he did it and actually tactically sound even if surprising and secondly he wouldn't have got Ray out of there IMO and be looking for a second wind very early.