Ring's Heavyweight "Best I've Faced," compiled

2 left...

 

Yeah, that's what gives me the most hesitation. There's an apparent trend in "Best I've Faced" to give more credit to the guy you beat than the guy you lost to. Holyfield lost -- and won, but also lost -- to a whole lot of people.

 

Ok done with the initial transfer.

 

You know, when you highlight nominees who *repeatedly* appear, slightly less surprising names show up.

One thing I do notice, though: Tyson was a physical phenomenon. He shows up in multiple guys' categories for basically everything from handspeed to being the physically strongest man they faced, to chin.

(Evander, meanwhile, must have been a ridiculously skilled man. I thought the comparisons to Ezzard Charles were overblown, but after seeing this...maybe not.)

 

Now that it's done, once you have the full list of the guys polled, you can play around with it a bit.

For example, on a whim, I wondered, "Do we have any evidence from this that Gerrie Coetzee was one of the greatest punchers ever?" (Spoiler: No.) So I looked for all of the respondents who'd faced him. Frank Bruno nominated James "Bonecrusher" Smith. Pinklon Thomas nominated Tommy Morrison. Mike Weaver said it was Bernardo Mercado. Now, as an interesting aside, two of these three also faced Tyson. Which just goes to show that some of this stuff can be all over the map.

 

Also for fun, let's take a quick look at Foreman. Not many on this list faced him compared to, say, Tyson. Some met him in the 70s, others in the 90s:

Evander Holyfield
George Chuvalo
Chuck Wepner
Michael Moorer
Pierre Coetzer

Two of the three guys who faced Foreman in the 90s said he had the best defense they'd ever encountered. (The third, Holyfield, nominated Qawi instead. Holyfield, however, did rate Foreman as the most durable.)

Chuvalo and Holyfield agreed, decades apart, that Foreman was the strongest man and the best puncher they'd faced. Wepner said an old Liston was the best puncher, but pretty much put Big George and Liston on an equal footing for physical strength as he met them. (Wepner believed Liston would have been stronger at his peak, but never met that Liston.)

But...there are dissenters from the 90s. Coetzer nominated Riddick Bowe as the hardest puncher, and Moorer nominated Tua. (Moorer did add in his interview that Foreman hit hard as well, though.) Moorer nominated Bert Cooper as the strongest guy, while Coetzer nominated Frank Bruno, who, incidentally, nominated Coetzer in turn. Coetzer commented that Foreman was also strong, but not as strong as Bruno...although Coetzer speculated that prime Foreman must have been stronger than the old one he fought.

 

I could, and should, probably add the "Best I've Trained" trainer picks as well. There are a few interesting ones there. Including appreciation for DaVarryl Williamson.