Overblown Wins!

Ring Magazine has him ranked #8 in the world around the time he fought Liston. He was coming off a split decision loss to Nino Valdes. Bethea was only stopped once, by Liston, in a 50 fight career which included fights against Cleveland Williams, Nino Valdes, Zora Folley, Eddie Machen, Henry Cooper, Ernie Terrell, Ezzard Charles.

 

None of the top men had been able to decisively beat Bethea, and he had beaten some decent names. Not surprised at all that he was top 10 during a relatively weak era (the mid 50's).

Stopping a tough guy, who had gone to split decisions with the current top contenders, inside a single round is certainly not a bad way to make a statement.

 

my man

 

Corbett over Sullivan. I think Sullivan was pretty out of shape and a shadow of what he was by this time. It's probably rated higher than it should be because of what it meant as a gamechanger in the technique of the division, but as far as a victory it might be a little overstated- it's a dominant performance over a faded great.

I kinda feel the same way about Ali-Liston(don't kill me)

 

Jones-Ruiz. On paper, it was a great accomplishment. In reality, Ruiz was absolutely dire that night, didn't even use his advantages at all or really try to put Jones under any pressure. James Toney beat the **** out of him as well, to underline how mediocre he was, but because Toney failed a drug test that fight is forgotten and Jones's win remains thought of as some unprecedented achievement. BS. And I'm a Jones fan. Ruiz was just that bad.

 

riddick bowe over holyfeild.

Because people forget evander was so under rated at this time. I was sick to death reading about how evander wasn’t a real heavyweight, that he was an ex cruiser taken to the wall by two old men and nearly knocked out by a late sub who George foreman (considered a joke until he won the title) destroyed. This was the established opinion at that time. Enhanced when bowe beat him.

what made evander look better was beating mike Tyson and George later winning the title. That was the point where finally people realised evander had rings on his fingers and bells on his toes all along. bowe benefited from this "evander renaissance" since he beat this newly decided great fighter at his peak.

without holyfeild, bowe is another greg page or tony tubbs.

without Tyson, Evander is another under rated champion like charles coming after joe louis.

 

I agree on some level. But to be fair he was one of the best Heavyweights at that time. Going 1-1-1 with a still pretty good Holyfield, no matter what anyone says. Also beating Kirk Johnson before the loss to Jones. After Jones he went on to get a win over Rahman and Golota.

It wasn't until 2 1/2 years later until he lost to Toney. Toney was on a banned substance that night as well.

I think it's still Jones 2nd biggest win for sure. It's a boderline great win, I think.

1. James Toney
2. John Ruiz
3. Bernard Hopkins
4. Virgil Hill
5. Antonio Tarver

 

The wins over Hill and Tarver are quite a bit better than the win over Hopkins. I also think the win over Griffin in the rematch is a better one.

 

I don't know maybe Hill could be argued as a better win than Hopkins but I don't think Tarver can.

 

Tarver and Griffin were better fighters when Jones faced them than Hopkins was.

 

a more recent one...caballero over molitor. this win, while dominant, put him into a lot of top 10 lists. molitor was nowhere near any top 10 list, or any top 50 list really, so how a win over him put caballero that high is ridiculous.