Quest for heavyweight data

Corbet was slightly easier. his "notable victories" (pre matt's rankings) stand at choynski x 2, kilrain and mcaffrey. his only actual top 10 victory is mccoy and he beat current champ sullivan.

admittedly were it not for matt's rankings i'd have included charley mitchell as a "notable" defence, but I want to remain consistent so I've not included him on corbett's notable/top 10.

just to clarify when i say notable i purely mean well regarded boxers prior 1892.

 

just incase anyone is interested i'm putting this all on a spreadsheet that i'll make available somehow when i've completed it.

matt, in your early rankings, is that joe godfrey who holds a top 10 ranking?

 

that's exactly the reason I asked.

I'm just going through the heavyweights seeing who they beat that were top 10 ranked by the year end.

As an update I've done right up until Jack Demnpsey, also including Liston, Marciano and Frazier (Thank you Liston's jab!)

Up until 1892 I've based "notable victories" on reports of heavyweights at the time. since 1892 I've stuck strictly to Matt's and Ring's end of year rankings.

Obviously there will be a couple of fighters who were top 10 ranked and then lost it before the year ned, for now I'm dismissing those because it will be quite subjective.

 

I must say, doing this some things are immediately apparent: it is clear to see why Johnson is so highly regarded, very few boxers defeated as many end of year top 10 opposition as Johnson did, non up until Dempsey anyway.

Also I think it needs to be stated how dominant a champ Jeffries was, he almost always defended against the number 1 contender, amazing stuff.

Sullivan is hard to gauge because some reports show he kocked out over 200 people only ever losing to Corbet. I think it is clear that he beat the majority of leading contenders during his reign, he definitely fought pretty much every heavyweight fighter alive by way of exhibition.

I can also dee why Dempsey is derided by some, his resume is lacking some big names, however 4 of his defences were against top 10 guys, it is clear that his late inactivity cost him here though.

So far (pre-tunney) dempsey, johnson and jeffries made the most top 10 defences - 4 by my count.

Due to Liston's jab it is also clear to see why many rate Marciano so highly, he defended 6 times against top 10 opponents, he beat the current champ, he beat 5 top 10 opponents prior to his title reign and also beat a "non-current" champ 4 times. impressive stuff.

I'll carry on my uppdates later on.

 

couldn't drag myself away, done up until sharkey now. taking less time than i anticipated.

Yeah Johnson's resume surprised me, the stats I have for him are

reign - 7 years
top 10 opponents - 13
top 10 defences - 4
non current champs beaten - 2
current champs beaten - 1

it's impressive.

Jeffries did superbly well, better than I'd first imagined he would have done. Such a dominant reign whilst it lasted.

Also since that info about Fitzsimmons beating the great Godfrey and not the crap Godfrey, there is a real argument taht not only is he one of the best p4per's but also one of the best heavies. I've not finished the list off yet as I said I'm up to Sharkey, but he beat 10 top 10 opponents, the only downfall is he never defended the belt, I'd imagine he'll be around 15 or so when I finish.

Not entirely sure how I'm going to do the points system yet, but it'll be based on length of title spell, top 10 opposition, top 10 defences, current champ beat, non-current champs beat.

when I say current champ I mean lineal, not alphabet. I'm trying to make my list as least subjective as possible.

 

Is it definitely he beat the middleweight and not the heavyweight?

I was thinking about doing a pre-post system maybe, 1 point for each plus boots point for having both, I dunno something like that. There is problems with just using 1 of the rankings, I decided post was of better significance but I think i'll combine the two actually.

As for draws, my big issue with that is a draw now isn't the same as a draw back then "ruled a draw because both fighters finished on their feet" it does need factoring i'm just not sure how at the moment. The issue then is i'd need to also look at dq losses that were clearly knockout victories i.e. Fitz vs sharkey.

I think for now i'm going to focus on victories and then add draws later to see how it changes things.

 

Your input is fantastic! Just so there is no overlap i've done up until sharkey.

Thank you very much

 

I know you're right, I think what i'll do is just include either as equal so anyone they beat who was a top ten in either the year before or the year end. Both have merits so both will be included. I will weight them equally regardless of whether it is just one or both. At the end of the day it's about fighting a top ten opponent and either year before or year end will be valid in my eyes.