My top heavyweight year by year 1970-1999

I tried to come up with arguments against any of these but no dice.

 

1970 Joe Frazier
1971 Joe Frazier
1972 Muhammad Ali
1973 George Foreman
1974 Muhammad Ali
1975 Muhammad Ali
1976 George Foreman
1977 Ken Norton
1978 Larry Holmes
1979 Larry Holmes
1980 Mike Weaver
1981 Larry Holmes
1982 Larry Holmes
1983 Larry Holmes
1984 Pinklon Thomas
1985 Michael Spinks
1986 Mike Tyson
1987 Mike Tyson
1988 Mike Tyson
1989 Mike Tyson
1990 Evander Holyfield
1991 Evander Holyfield
1992 Riddick Bowe
1993 Evander Holyfield
1994 George Foreman
1995 Riddick Bowe
1996 Evander Holyfield
1997 Evander Holyfield
1998 Lennox Lewis
1999 Lennox Lewis

 

1991 is highly controversial, Holy looked really average against Cooper and Foreman, Tyson won against a more highly regarded rival at that time. 1997 Holy definitely looked better than Lewis. I have no opinion on Weaver and Thomas, but in my opinion Holmes in 1st place would not be a mistake. There are years when there was no clear leader. But, for example, George Foreman in 1973 or Mike Tyson in 1988 completely dominated, while 1994 could have been practically vacant, there was no one who could be considered a real champion.

 

Well, there were 3 real champions in 1994: Evander Holyfield, Michael Moorer and George Foreman. Lennox and then McCall were just a paper titlists.

But it has nothing to do with who was the top heavyweight. I would say, the lineal unified champion should have the strongest claim, but overall, who had the better year? Hard to tell. The two best wins of the year was Moorer vs Holyfield and Foreman vs Moorer. You can add McCall's win against Lewis too. But Foreman and Moorer only had these 2 wins in a year. McCall had wins against Lewis and Larry Holmes, who wasn't ranked but regarded highly. I would still say Foreman's win against Moorer is the best one and since he didn't lose during the year (unlike Moorer), he would take the spot of the best heavyweight of 1994.

EDIT: well, McCall win against Holmes came in 1995, so it's not much of a debate now.

 

McCall over Foreman.

 

It shows, you chose well.