Outside of Clay, Lewis and Holyfield, didnt most Heavweight ATGs rule over 'weak' divisions?

Broadly speaking yes.

You could argue that Johnson ruled over a strong era, but that the key fights never happened.

 

Bivins was shot and a Light Heavyweight.

He only lost to Johnson and Valdez, the former being a Light Heavyweight, and the latter only coming along after his reign.

Satterfield was fairly meh.

 

Prime Charles KOs Valdez and Johnson

 

Jim Jeffries. Battled ancient James "Mr Thong" Corbett, and ancient Fitzsimmons, plus a group of non-entities. Sharkey's name will come up, but he was even cruder than Jeffries.

 

Its somehwat true

Ali ruled over a great division

Louis over a pretty good one, ditto for Holmes. Lewis did too over a pretty good (though not great division)

Holyfield didn't "rule" for as long but he did beat a lot of good fighters and his competition level that he beat was better than most heavyweights in history.

Frazier ruled over a good division- Ali, Quarry, Bonavena, Ellis.

Tyson ruled over a decent division- Thomas, Berbick, Tucker etc. Not great but decent.

Basically only Ali ruled over a truly great division (in his second reign) but Frazier, Holmes, Louis, Lewis ruled over good ones.

Just below we have Tyson and Marciano who ruled over decent ones.

Johnson and Dempsey didn't fight the best available contenders so they are below Tyson and Marciano.

Holyfield Foreman, Liston are the odd men out. Foreman didn't rule for long in either reign despite being an ATG and Holyfield won and lost fairly often but his best wins are better than most champs.

If i had to divide it into tiers:

Tier 1: Ali (second reign, 74-78)- Notable wins over Foreman, Frazier, Lyle and Shavers.

Tier 2: Louis, Lewis, Holmes, and Frazier- All good divisions. Frazier has the best win of this group with his win over Ali. Holmes has good wins vs Shavers, Witherspoon, Cooney and Norton. Lewis has good wins vs Tua, Vitali, Briggs, Golota, and the faded version of Holyfield. Louis has good wins vs Schmeling, Budy Baer, Walcott, a good range of fighters.

Tier 3: Marciano and Tyson- Marciano has some good wins vs Walcott and an aging Charles, and a ATG LHW like Moore. But he doesn't have wins vs big hitting heavies. Tyson beat some good fighters but none of his wins during his reign were as good as the best win of the guys in tier 2.

Tier 4: Dempsey and Johnson- Dempsey actually has a better reign beating guys like Fripo and Brennan and Gibbons. But he missed on WIlls and Norfolk. Johnson missed on Langford. You can't place them any higher.

Cannot classify: Holyfield (won and lost often), Liston and Foreman (too short)

 

Ayyyy, the voice of reason.

 

Sometimes ATGs make their eras look weak.

 

I looked it up just to double check, because I don't want to be the hooplehead who tries to correct a guy and is wrong himself but...Clay Aiken never even boxed. Nor, all due respect, does he seem like the type who normally would. So, I don't really know where you're coming from on that.

 

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Probably because Louis was just so dominant. Similar to Mike Tyson, who was facing some pretty big heavies who could box and punch. Takes a lot to become champ and stay on top for a decade.

 

No, your post is off. Wlad ruled in an era or superheavies. Povetkin and Pulev are are still competitive today despite being way past it.

Povetkin, Haye, Iggy, Chagaev, Pulev, Brewster, Byrd, Peter, Chambers, and Jennings would be competitive or better than the top ten of any other reign, and Wlad's goes deeper than those guys.

 

His name is Ali.

 

Agreed they get a lot of disrespect, it’s quite uncalled for.

 

On Lennox Lewis: He ruled over a weaker division as well.

His achievements against the biggest fighters of his era didn't particularly count for much as Tyson was way past his prime when Lewis fought him, Holyfield was also past his prime and the Bowe match never materialised... He fought a future champion of the next era (Vitali) which he was losing to before the fight was stopped.

Lewis has a good resume but the fighters that were the elites of that time were either past their prime or unavailable to fight. While he won in dominate fashion his opposition wasn’t that stellar.

Jackson, Butler, Akinwande, Mavrovic not exactly stellar.
Briggs, Bruno, The corpse of Oliver McCalls psyche etc etc were average.
Just my thoughts... personally I liked Lewis and a win over a prime Bowe should have happened.