Rank the TOP 10 HW from the 90s to here

1. Lennox Lewis
2. Evander Holyfield
3. Wladimir Klitschko
4. Oleksandr Usyk
5. Riddick Bowe
6. Vitali Klitschko
7. Chris Byrd
8. Anthony Joshua
9. Michael Moorer
10. George Foreman

Chris Byrd is criminally underrated in this thread. WBO champion beating Vitali + a four-year IBF reign beating an older version of Holyfield + a win against David Tua. Was only beaten by Klitschko and Ibeabuchi before he got washed up. Tyson Fury's best wins were all against boxers who were past their best - Klitschko, Wilder and Whyte. And Mike Tyson has zero significant achievements in the 90s or after. Povetkin is an interesting choice, but I have Ray Mercer above him, and he doesn't make it to this list.

 

Usyk
Holyfield
Lewis
Fury
Wladimir
Vitali
Bowe
Tyson
Foreman
Moorer

 

Heres a top 20.


Lennox
Wladimir Klitschko
Bowe
Moorer
Dubois
Usyk
Joshua
Povetkin
Chagaev
Old Foreman
Fury
Wilder
Vitali
Holyfield
Tyson
Haye
Valuev
Byrd
Golota
Whoever you want

Ney inspired me to leave Vitali off the top 10. Shannon Briggs is the only lineal champ Vitali beat and his SOS for a long time champ is utterly egregious. Worse than Joshua, Fury and Wilders.

 

Byrds rating on this list really depends how you rate Vitali whose career is very polarizing. A lot of guys beat Holyfield especially in the 2000s but even in the 90s. If one doesn't rate those guys high Byrds barely in the top 20.

Mercer should not be above Povetkin IMO. I do not think Mercer is top 10 in just the 90s. Nm 90-2024.

 

Here is the list of guys who beat Holyfield in the 90s:

Riddick Bowe (twice)
Michael Moorer
Lennox Lewis

They are just THREE guys, and they take all but one spot in your top 4! Yet you have rated Holy at #14 below Vitali! And what's more - he has a win each against Bowe and Moorer. He also has a draw against Lewis, but that one can be discarded. With regards to the 2000s- yes, a lot of people beat Holyfield, but this is a man who was getting into his 40s.

You have Dubois over Usyk, could you explain the rationale behind this ordering? Dubois's wins have been against Joshua, Hrgovic, Lerena and Miller. I don't think the last two should even count (and the win against cruiserweight Lerena was very shady). He lost to Joe Joyce and Usyk himself. Usyk has beaten Joshua twice, beaten Dubois, beaten Fury, has been the undisputed champ, has remained undefeated thus far. I don't see a single reason why Dubois should be above Usyk.

Finally - as much as I love Povetkin, there is no reason for me to put him in the top ten. What was Povetkin's biggest win? He beat Byrd and Rahman when both guys were well past it. He beat Ruslan Chagaev - but how many people here have put Chagaev in their lists? Povetkin did beat Whyte when the former was well past it, but how good was Whyte in 2020, seriously? Povetkin went up against Klitschko who was also past it and lost by a wide margin, so why should he be rated above Vitali? Vitali beat three alphabet champs - Peter, Briggs and Sanders (I am not including Herbie Hide who was a WBO champ when that title meant little). Vitali also put up a good show against Lewis and Byrd in losing efforts. Vitali had three reigns as champ for a combined period of five years with about ten defenses. Povetkin had none (WBA regular belt does not count). Before his final return, Vitali won all but one of his fights by convincing margins, Povetkin needed decisions against about half a dozen of his opponents. Vitali continued beating contenders comfortably when he was well past it. As a matter of fact, Vitali lost about a dozen rounds in his entire career. Povetkin drew against Hammer and lost once to Whyte in his later career.

 

Very good post and I imagine you write it from your head without going on boxrec since Povetkin drew with Hunter.He did comfortably outpoint Hammer in Russia before.
Also note that he has an Olympic gold medal at home but I do agree his ranking is hard to define and certainly not as high as maybe his talent would have generated.
That Whyte KO in the pandemic while old and losing was epic though.His PED KO streak prior to fighting Wlad is also highly impressive.He as smashing those guys up including Charr.

 

I agree with what you wrote, Povetkin was excellent and had he been fighting in another era (70s or 90s), he would be praised to the skies. But his crime was that he was the second-best guy in the most boring era (aka the 'Klinchko' era). A very aesthetically pleasing fighter and a tough competitor.

 

I do not have Usyk over Lewis at heavyweight.

But calling Joshua a stiff isn't right. The Joshua of 2021 would beat the aging Holyfield that Lewis beat (the same Holyfield who just months later was struggling with John Ruiz).

In fact, i will take the "stiff robot" Joshua over Ruddock, Grant, Morrison, Bruno, 2002 Tyson, 1999 Holyfield, Marovic, Golota and Rahman.
Arguably the only Lewis wins that are as good or better than Usyk's over Joshua are Tua and Mercer.

Fury may have struggled vs Nnganou but the motivated fit Fury who showed up vs Usyk would beat most of Lewis's opponents. Let's not downplay what Usyk has done.

But yes, obviously because of Lewis's longevity and depth, you can't rank Usyk ahead of him.

 

Those 3 guys combined to hand him 4 losses and a draw. Holyfield struggled in a lot of his wins too. Its not just the Ls. Its also not just a 90s list where hes 4th or 5th. We're adding another 25 years after the 90s.

Much of the list was close and I changed my mind several times when making list. Dubois and Usyk was one of those. Povetkin and Chagaev over Vitali was not.

Dubois over Usyk is because of how badly he beat Joshua and the Hrgovic win. Usyk has 6 fights at HW 4 of which he lost 4 rounds or more. Usyk stopped Dubois but thats Usyks only major HW stoppage and you had the whole foul thing. The AJ win is the most valuable HW win of this era. At least for now.

Chagaev won a belt over someone a full foot taller and 90 pounds heavier then him. Before his last fight his only two losses were to the top 2 HWs of his era IMO. Besides Roy Jones Chagaevs the smallest HW champ of the 21st century I think? Before his final fight he was only stopped by Wlad. If Usyk is amazing for succeeding at HW as a 6 ft 3 guy what does that make Chagaev at 6 ft 1?

Povetkin was the second best HW of Wlads reign and was ranked top 2 or 3 for a very long time. Chagaev is not on peoples lists cause hes underrated. Povetkin wasn't much bigger than Chagaev either. Thats the highest ranked win someone other than Wlad had in that era. Getting shutout by Wladimir Klitschko is not a mark of shame. By my arbitrary count Povetkin fought more title contenders than Vitali did despite not being champ. Byrd and Rahman were not at their peak but both hadn't lost to someone other than Wlad in years.

Two of Vitalis reigns are dubious even by alphabet standards and I don't consider them real titles(same goes for Povetkins regular belt). Vitali was WBO champ before it was a major belt and his last reign was awful as were all the 2010s WBC HW reigns. Individually the fighters he beat in that reign could all be justified as easy title defenses. The problem was that was all 9 of them. Briggs, Chisora and Peter are the only 3 guys Vitali fought during his last reign who fought for real belts and if Tyson Fury didn't gift Chisora a title shot it'd be just Briggs and Peter.

You can say by the eye test Vitali could beat anyone on this list. Thats hypotheticals. His resume just isn't there. The only 2 guys in my top 20 Vitali fought beat him. Vitalis loss to Lennox is the highlight of his career and Briggs is the best win.

 

John Ruiz beating aj isn't far fetched anymore

That Holyfield drops aj btw

 

No chance does that joshay beat Holyfield in 99
Not in a million years

Not beating a 90s tyson either, that's just silly
Tyson still had much of his speed and all his power. He would terrify the stiff Useless Aj

Fury lost to Ngannou so I will play down the usyk win. It was nothing special

 

Holyfield, in 1999, was about half a year away from struggling with John Ruiz, one of the most mediocre heavyweight champions in modern history. This wasn't prime Holyfield or anything close to it.

Lewis didn't beat 90's Tyson. He beat 2002 Tyson who was an absolute shell of his former self. Tyson was overweight by 15 lbs, had stamina that lasted a total of 2 rounds, and was completely past it. I am not sure why you are talking about a 90's Tyson when Lewis never beat a 90's Tyson.

Fury beats 2002 Tyson and 1999 Holyfield. So does Joshua although Holyfield will have a punchers chance if he can land a big left hook.

 

John Ruiz beating AJ is far fetched. John does not have the handspeed and power of Andy. He certainly doesn't have the power of Dubois. So given that he isn't a puncher in the class of Andy or Dubois, i don't see how he can beat him.

 

Fury lost to McDermott and Ngannou, he never beats these guys

I glanced over your post I assumed you were talking about 90s fighters in general

I'd still take Tyson in 02 over Aj. He would terrify him

Joshua is massively overrated on this forum