Prime Frans Botha - where does he rank among ATG Heavies?

1990's

Holyfield
Lewis
Bowe
Tyson
Foreman

Holmes
V. Klitschko
W. Klitschko
Ibeabuchi
Byrd

Tua
Moorer
Bruno
McCall
Seldon

Rahman
Grant
Briggs
Mercer
Morrison

Witherspoon
Tubbs
Douglas
Tucker
Cooper

 

I reckon Botha could take care of Tubbs, Douglas, Cooper and Seldon ...

 

Ruddock
Akinwande
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not very high

 

No way he beats prime Tubbs or Douglas. Cooper would be iffy - Bert certainly had the punch to hurt him. Seldon could outpoint him. Seldon's achiles heel was stamina and chin. Botha didn't have much of a punch.

 

Ruiz did very little during the 90s.

McCall is also a top ten lock. He beat Holmes, Lewis, (fat) Damiani and a green Maskaev. That's arguably better than anyone outside the top 3.

 

Very much agree with all of this. Botha kind of surprised me, because he didn't look like much when I saw him here. Du Plooy, Coetzer and Sanders looked better and were far more popular with the local crowd. Botha was always a bit of a dark horse.

But then he relocated to the US and actually became a decent fighter. He was never a real contender, but he had enough credability that a win over him was a decent result and looked good on the resume.

Overall, a respectable fighter who managed to fight some of fhe very best heavies in the world. That's brag-worthy to me.

 

Of course he would not beat a PRIME TUBBS, but then who would?

Douglas was prime for about 45 minutes in 1990. As far as the 1990's, Botha's broad breadth of work surely outclasses Douglas' effort in that decade.

 

that is a giant leap from 10 to 20 all time!

 

Botha was a solid heavy.... Verry good but not elite, he would be a contender in any era. On a good night he had the tools to cause all but a few serious problems.

 

For white heavies of his era below Vit, Ruiz, Maskaev, Sanders and Morrison, on par with Schulz, maybe slightly better than Nielsen and Savarese. Certainly a tough guy when prime, but he has the ped ban also.

 

How was he as an African-American heavyweight?

 

I like Botha, but even discussing whether he's an ATG is preposterous. Truthfully, he was a fringe contender. He did get robbed a couple of times, which affected his resume unfairly, but he was never "in the mix" when discussing the top heavys of the day.

 

When was he in the top ten?

 

Botha was very far away from ATG status. Low skill fighter.