My Top 10 Heavyweights on a head-to-head basis

1. Vitali
2. Lennox
3. Wlad
4. Bowe
5. Tyson
6. Holyfield
7. Holmes
8. Ali
9. Big Josh
10. Big George

Just missing the cut: Ike, Fury, Spoon, Wilder.

Surprised a bit with how many rank Liston but nobody includes Frazier. Is it Sonny's Dhalsim reach?

 

My list head2head

1 Lennox Lewis
2 Ali
3 Foreman
4 Holmes
5 Bowe
6 Tyson
7 Vitali
8 Wlad
9 Holyfield
10 Liston

The top 5 are pretty self explanatory. As for 6-10, I think Holyfield and Liston are better and tougher
than Wlad and Vitali but think they would've lost to both. Tyson, while small is a different type
small than Evander and Sonny. Explosively he's so much quicker and a harder hitter and more elusive, I always thought he'd be a nightmare for both Klits. I admit I do go back and forth however.

 

Not really since Vitali lost to the two best guys he fought and hasn't a win over a single elite or A level fighter.

Kingpin Johnson made him miss 500 of his punches and two round Sanders off the couch found his chin easily in the opening rounds.
I can easily think of 10 HWs who would beat Vitali.

 

#1 - L. Lewis
#2 - M. Ali
#2a - M. Tyson
#3 - G. Foreman
#4 - L. Holmes
#5. J. Louis
#6. J. Frazier
#7. R. Bowe
#8. E. Holyfield
#9. W. Klitschko
#10. A. Joshua

Honourable Mentions:
David Price

 

Lol, Vitali was comfortably ahead on every scorecard in his 2 loses, injuries happen to everyone. He beat Johnson and Sanders to a pulp. Sure you can

 

I guess selective memory has many people putting Riddick Bowe in their H2H top 10. Bowe did indeed beat Holyfield who deservedly belongs in the top 10 but he beat no one else of true note.
Holmes, Ali and Louis are top 3 in no particular order, the next 3 again in no particular order would be Lewis, Foreman and Wlad. The rest would be Tyson, Vitali, Holyfield and Marciano. Obviously this is just my opinion and not everyone will agree
P.S the reason I put Holmes name first is down to the Shavers fight being the first fight I saw on TV as a kid.

 

Well lets talk real , your post is 100% select visualization of things that would take great upsets for it to happen...

You don't need a lot of fights to have someone head to head because its one fight not a career.

Bowe was 6'5 235 and a very well balanced fighter under Eddie Futch who left him after Golota fight one bc he was not listening. That's neither here or there....

Can you imagine Joe Louis trying to beat up Bowe ? Bowes weakness was not being very mobile but where does he have to go in that match up ? He would rip right into Louis on the inside and pop him with a VERY good jab if Louis fought from distance ,Bowe had a very good chin too . How would Louis's hold up ? Do you think Bowe would get hurt by anyone in the 30's or 40's ,I don't..but that's just me....lol

Heres the real question ,how does Bowe not belong if you say Holyfield does ? That's a magic trick I would like to know bc Bowe has two wins on Holyfield therefor Bowe automatically is included if this is a head to head thread and deciphering which fighter would get by the most ones Bowe fares better then Holyfield bc hes more equipped to deal with bigger guys, we would have seen this had Foreman not decline Bowe.


On a side note there is a logical most likely order in Ali, Louis and Holmes...

The fight that tells you what happens with Ali vs Louis is in the Louis vs Billy Conn fight and how that plays out with Ali flustering Louis with movement and long range jabs.

Marciano? Only if you pretend stats don't matter and you feel 180 pounds and up today should also be HW. Yea you could put guys in top ten if nostalgia is a criteria you use but it actually doesn't apply to real life ( your basically just doing what everyone is doing on here )...Holmes should be in here bc an A plus jab/speed/ring IQ not bc iit was the first fight you saw, he has an advantage over Ali through the jab which defaults anything Ali will do making him far less effective.

 

Sorry as I am at work I only have a small amount of time to write the whys and wherefores.
Marciano fought numerous fighters way larger than himself and out of all my picks I agree he is MY selective choice as I would love to see wht he could do with his style of fighting.
Holyfield over Bowe simply down to the other fighters he has overcome, not just the ONE like Bowe.
What you said about holmes times by 3. If I get more time I will try to detail MY choices to your liking have a good day

 

Let's see the list then of 10 fighters who'd beat Vitali.....

 

Very surprised with the amount of people who have Tyson so high and in most cases above Holyfield.

 

Marciano had no jab , he would get mugged by a elite 6'5 guy who could fight outside or in....no one without at least speed is going to win a fight like that giving up 7 inches in height and 13 inches in reach! It's not about Marciano beat bigger guys then him , can he beat guys who could box and were giants ?

Marciano fought roughly 10 guys over 200 pounds out of 49 wins...is Bowe comparable to these 10 guys? I think you know that answer.

Take each BEST win and ignore the real life stats ( most do that anyway and that's actually selective memory) who would make the list Marciano or Bowe ?

This isn't my liking , this is using sense.

 

You should watch the Johnson fight again because he wasn't beaten to any pulp. He stood in front of Vitali with an injury and made him look like a drunk for 12 rounds. The skill on display from Vitali in that fight was laughable.
You want to see Kingpin beaten to a pulp , go watch the Joshua fight.

Sanders did receive a bad beating but he was past it , untrained and only turned up for the payday.

Its like saying Jerry Cooney is top 5 H2H because he beat Ron Lyle and Jimmy Young to a pulp.

 

I'm not sure this thread belong to this forum...

 

Marciano fought guys larger than himself true but none that could be even remotely described as a modern super heavy. Biggest guy he fought weighed 254lbs, big right, but 2 years before this guy was a middleweight, he basically fought a morbidly obese middleweight.

The next biggest guy Rocky fought was 229lbs and 43-11-2, hardly what I would call a top contender and this was a career high weight for this fighter he was usually around 220lbs and was as low as 195lbs in a later fight so in reality this guy wasn't a real heavyweight more a big cruiser in today's divisions.

The biggest top heavy Rocky fought was an old Joe Louis at 213lbs. Fact is Rocky never beat a top contender who could be remotely described as a super heavy now.

Rocky was a great fighter for his time and era but modern heavies dwarf him horribly. His reign was also short only 6 defences and only Don Cockell and Walcott were naturally bigger than him all his other defences vs Charles, Moore and La Starza he out weighed them and was naturally bigger. So let's not pretend size wasn't a factor in his successful reign he was in an era where he wasn't a small fighter, none of his world title defences were against anyone bigger than 6'0". Throw him in with a 6'5" and 235lbs Bowe who beat Holyfield and you see Marciano do well to last the distance.