Olympic gold medalist with greatest professional career?

My Vote is for Claressa Shields...Just joking...It almost seems as if the op is attempting to sneak in Shields because of a secret crush the op might have.

 

How could you all overlook the greatness of Audley Harrison?

On a more serious note, Olesksander Usyk is still active, and becoming undisputed heavyweight champion, as well as undisputed cruiserweight champion, would put him right up there.

 

I don't particularly like him but it's hard to argue against Muhammad Ali.

 

This is how I look at it, I know I'm missing loads, this is just from the top of my head.

S tier- Muhammad Ali, Michael Spinks, Pernell Whitaker, Ray Leonard
A tier- Lennox Lewis, Usyk, Oscar De La Hoya, Wladimir Klitschko (honorable mention) Roy Jones Jr.
B tier- George Foreman, Joe Fraizer, Andre Ward, Nino Benvenuti
C tier- Vasyl Lomachenko, Rigo, Anthony Joshua, Meldrick Taylor, Floyd Patterson
C- Tier- Vassiliy Jirov, Henry Maske, Mark Breland, Yuriorkis Gamboa,
Joel Casamayor
D+ tier- Ryoto Murata, Patrizio Oliva, Leon Spinks, David Reid, Ray Mercer, Alexander Povetkin,
D tier- Zou Shiming, Luke Campbell, Tyrell Biggs, Felix Diaz, Steve McCrory, Howard Davis Jr, Odlanier Solis, Audley Harrison
F tier- Pete Rademacher, Jorge Gutierrez

 

Not a bad mention.

He has an embarrassment of wins over great fighters, in the forgotten weight classes.

 

I can't see Spinks and Whitaker as deserving to be on a higher tier than the A tier guys. And I can't see Foreman and Frazier as deserving to be above the C tier guys.

 

I disagree, Michael Spinks is a top 5 ATG LHW who has 2 wins over top 5 ATG HW champion Larry Holmes while he was still undefeated. That's simply better than anything Lewis, Usyk, DLH or Wlad has done. Usyk's career is still going so he might have an S ranked career, especially if he beats Fury. Whitaker just has the better body of work as well as a better resume compared to the others as well. Lewis, DLH and Wlad also had pretty bad losses in their prime while it's arguable Whitaker never truly lost until Trinidad when he was a shot coke addict.

Fraizer and Foreman are two top 10 ATG HW's. Lomachenko, Rigo, Joshua or Taylor aren't top 10 in anything, they simply haven't done as much as Foreman or Fraizer.

 

I don't want to write an essay.

Spinks beat some talented guys at 175 and went 11-0 title fights there, then made a brief stop at heavyweight to narrowly beat an aging Holmes twice, a past prime Cooney, and then get embarrassed by Tyson. I think Holmes is probably the only guy Spinks beat who has a case for being a top 50 ATG and he was slipping.

Now look at DLH: 16-5 in title fights or 23-5 counting the WBO, only losing to great fighters in competitive or controversial fights. Beat Whitaker and Chavez x 2 who are locks for top 50, past it but so was Holmes. Tito should've been a 3rd. Was the top guy in four divisions.

Whitaker is similar to that and isn't clearly ahead.

Foreman lacks depth of resume and has a pretty average overall record in title fights. Frazier and Rigo parallel each other in having one great win and ten or so wins in title fights that aren't so easily remembered.

Rigo is easily a top ten 122 and Lomachenko is a top ten 130.

 

I'm not gonna write an essay either. I'll keep it brief.

Michael Spinks was the reigning lineal and undefeated LHW champion. He didn't just make a break stop at HW, he defeated the undefeated and lineal HW Champion Larry Holmes not once but twice 3 months after defending his 175 titles. It was the 1985 upset of the year, Holmes was the favorite and fought on for 20 more years, not trying to hear any excuses.

DLH fought in the 4 belt era, I'm not interested in inflated stats. Dairusz Michalczewski is 25-2 in world title fights, nobody is rating him over Spinks. Many people thought Whitaker won that fight, also DLH was the bigger man compared to Whitaker and Chavez while Spinks was the 175 champion who moved straight to HW and dethrone the lineal HW champion.

Disagree

Please, so beating Nonito Donaire is the same as beating the undefeated Muammed Ali in the fight of the century aka the biggest fight of all time? Mmmkay.

Disagree. I don't rate Loma at 130, he's only fought 5 times there and has only beaten 2 top 10 rated 130 fighters in Roman Martinez and Jason Sosa who were never good to begin with. Naming him top 10 is doing a disservice to all the great champions who made their career at 130.

Also no, Rigo also isn't top 10 at 122, I'd have Gomez, Morales, Barrera, Zaragoza, Inoue, Israel Vasquez, Toshiaki Nishioka, Wilfredo Vazquez, Celestino Caballero and even Nonito Donaire himself at 122 above Rigo.

 

Yes, beating peak Donaire is at least as good as beating post exile Ali, if less popular. It's clear that you hate Rigondeaux so there's no need to go further.

Rigo and Loma are h2h near the top or 118/122 and 126/130, respectively.

Oscar was basically the man from 130-154. He doesn't need you to brush over his stats or pretend that narrowly beating an aging Holmes is better than narrowly beating a closer to prime Whitaker.

 

Ray Leonard, to me.

 

I hate Rigo cause I don't think he rates higher than Joe ****ing Fraizer? Sure...

So it's h2h now instead of actual rankings? Mmmkay.

Oscar was never the man at 130 or 140, he had only had two title fights each respectively. Oscar had a great career, both professional and amateur. I still don't rank him higher than Spinks or Whitaker though.

 

Too bad Tonya Harding didn’t gold medal.