Ranking the heavyweights 1956-1965 Top 15

Rankings look pretty good.

 

assuming this is on 1956 to 1965 accomplishments, the top 11 look pretty good. Harris and Pastrano? Okay.
Jackson was really at his best before this time frame. He was losing by 1960 to second raters like Howard King and Hans Kalbfell. DeJohn is, I think, a weak choice.

Replacements---Doug Jones for certain,

and probably George Chuvalo, who beat DeJohn decisively, as well as Jones.

Bob Cleroux would certainly be a good candidate were it not for his poor performance against DeJohn.

Harold Johnson fought mainly at light-heavy, but beat Machen & Bethea at heavy and could be ranked.

Alejandro Lavorante looked good until the Moore fight. and had a big KO over Folley.

 

"DeJohn also beat Bob Baker who beat Chuvalo"

DeJohn was at his peak at 27. How old was Chuvalo when he lost to Baker? He was still 19, three days short of his 20th birthday.

"his best heavyweight win was Zora Folley"

Who KO'd DeJohn.

"He lost to Billy Daniels and George Chuvalo."

Both of whom KO'd DeJohn. And Jones actually also won one against Daniels.

"He lost his biggest fights to . . . Machen . . ."

Who beat DeJohn twice, once by KO.

I think it obvious Jones is a better choice than DeJohn. A lot of this boils down to pointing out A beat B and B beat C, and then ignoring C beat A. Also, Jones' effort against Ali should count for something. DeJohn never produced an effort like that.

And Chuvalo defeated DeJohn. DeJohn managed a win over Cleroux, but so did Chuvalo. It is just that Chuvalo lost twice to Cleroux in Montreal. And DeJohn lost to Willi Besmanoff. How did Willi do with Chuvalo, again?

I'm not a big fan of Chuvalo, but I think he rates above DeJohn.

 

Solid effort.

 

Great list, bro. I don't agree with a some of your rankings outside of the top eight, but that's my lack of knowledge about these guys in your specified time period (rather than all time peak resume or head to head). Solid.

 

Solid.

 

Well, Moore seemed a little low when I read it last night (after a few beers). But you're right.
And I was going to mention Chuvalo, but that has been explained.
Great list.

 

Good list! But Valdez?

 

At the end of 1965 Mathis had a total 5 fights his opponents records were as follows.
1-4-1
7-4-0
1-3-0
0-0-0
1-2-0
How in the world does this qualify him to be included in a top 15 list for 56 to 65?
Martin had numerous fights coming to the end of 1965 ,none were wins over a ranked , or even a fringe contender
WTF are you on?

NB Marciano was retired a pretty good reason not to include him!