Ron Lyle vs Corrie Sanders (Bump poll added)

Where did I ever say Puritty was Leon Spinks level? WTF does Puritty even have to do with Leon Spinks?

You’re really big on pretzel logic — you connect two things in your head and decide I (or someone else) means something because you think those things are somehow equated when the person saying it never made that connection … it’s all in your head.

Gonzalez was downgraded when he got KTFO twice and was ruined forever after, thus going about .500 starting at the point he got exposed/destroyed. Did you honestly think Gonzalez was a top contender after he got wiped out by Bowe and Witherspoon? If you did, you’re alone. He was washed and the rest of his career he was the equivalent of a tackle dummy in football.

Puritty never won a world title. He never competed for one. He beat Wlad (good win) and Joe Hipp (decent win) and drew with Morrison (pretty good result for sure) — and lost to every other person with even a little bit of a name he ever faced and a lot of guys who weren’t household names in their own households.

Again, if you think he rates among the best heavyweights of his day, or even did for a little while, you’re the only member of the club. He was a journeyman. Nothing wrong with that. But that’s what he was.

 

Let's go with Bonecrusher Smith, but not quite as consistent. Basically a Leon Spinks level version of Bonecrusher.

 

Bonecrusher held a version of the title, beat a lot of contenders and former champions — Tim Witherspoon, of course, plus Frank Bruno, Mike Weaver, David Bey and several others who were in or around contendership … the kind of guys who routinely beat Puritty. Yes he lost to some of them too, but Smith won a title and was a contender for a long time — and he was thrown in tough from the very start and instead of going 8-8 he lost his debut to James Broad (who had a big amateur background and was a prospect) and then beat a bunch of prospects instead of continually losing to them (and a few nobodies, like Puritty did).

I think the BEST case you can make for Puritty is Jesse Ferguson — fellow club fighter, but at least Ferguson fought for a world title.

 

I implore you to stop ignoring that Purrity beat Wlad Klitschko. You'd have to be unbelievably tough to go 11 rounds with the young version of Wlad who let his hands go all the time. It took 36 fights for someone else to go that long with Wlad, and it was Byrd catching an ass kicking.

 

I think I’ve said numerous times that he had one big win. It’s the rest of his resume that’s pretty meh. Just like Jesse Ferguson beat Ray Mercer and Bigfoot Martin beat Tim Witherspoon … good job, but still a journeyman. It doesn’t put those guys on the same tier as their one-hit-wonder win.

Again, nothing wrong with being a journeyman. Ross went into the ring with many of the best guys of his day and acquitted himself well. Heck of a durable guy. My whole point is that when your second-best win is over a journeyman (as Sanders’ is) then it says something about how good a guy really was (in Sanders’ case).

Likewise, Corrie Sanders was a one-hit wonder. He was above journeyman — he didn’t have stretches where he lost as much or more than he won, but he also doesn’t have a lot of meat on the bone of his resume apart from one win and he lost to a very below-average guy by devastating KO.

 

Saint "I'm not invested in this" pat