Teddy Atlas's 10 Greatest Heavyweights of All Time.

Holyfield at 37 vs Lewis was much more worn out that Usyk at 37. So i don't think it matters if he is 0-2 vs Lewis.

 

Steroid testing was much more lax in Holyfields day so you could more easily offset age via massive amounts of steroids, HGH etc.

 

No one is denying Usyk isn't an ATG, but level of opposition matters, you cannot put AJ and Fury in the same level as both the guys u mentioned in ANY type of way

Did you forget Evander also beat Qawi 2x and De Leon at CW? which are factually much better wins than the likes of Briedis and Gassiev? or Old Foreman, Dokes, Quick Tilis, Pinklon Thomas, Buster, Mercer, Czyz, Moorer, Valuev (robbery) which are better names and a better HW career resume than Usyk?

There is absolutely no instance where Usyk ranks higher than Evander Holyfield.

 

Probably but he does seem to have a positive view on Uysk.

I haven't seen the video but supposedly he hints to Uysk being number 6 when he retires.

 

Not true at all.

Holyfield has 10 world title wins at Heavyweight compared to 5 for Usyk.

25 year old prime Bowe is a better win than a 36 year old shopworn Fury.

Beating Tyson in the 90s as a massive underdog is still a better win than Joshua.

Then you have the likes of....

Thomas
Dokes
Mercer
Moorer
Rahman
Douglas
Foreman
Holmes

Who were all champions at one point.

Holyfield has many more quality wins at Heavyweight and much more filler to his resume.

Usyk edges Holyfield for Cruiserweight achievements but in regards to Heavyweight Holyfield is still clear of Usyk in that regard.

 

He’s got seven of mine. The omissions are Frazier, Liston and Tyson.

 

If Usyk is to be in 6th place, Tyson Fury and AJ should also be quite high, who being clearly at a worse stage of their career than Usyk gave him really equal fights in a direct fight and have much more valuable victories in HW than Usyk. Let's also remember that the two greatest that Usyk defeated became famous after defeating Wladimir Klitschko when he was 39 and 41 years old. Fury won after a strange fight with a very depressed Wlad, largely due to the uncomfortable style for Klitschko, and AJ had to fight for his life with Wlad, who has been inactive for 2 years. Considering the record, number of defenses and Wlad's many years of dominance, where is Klitschko in the Atlas ranking? For me, this is a completely non-biased, hard to understand list that is based more on Atlas' personal sentiments than on logic and sports facts.

 

Wonder how much Teddy would be willing to bet on Marciano beating Lewis ?

 

Bowe's main claim to fame is beating Holyfield himself, why should Holyfield get credit for beatinng a guy whose reputation is almost solely based on beating him. That seems like circular logic.

 

Bowe beat an ATG in his prime and looked sensational in regards to the eye test in doing it.

Hence Holyfield beating Bowe in his prime with a significant size disadvantage is a good win.

There's no Heavyweight now who has anywhere close to a win that Bowe had on that scale in regards to a prime ATG Heavyweight opponent.

I rate a 25 year old Bowe in his prime higher than a 36 year old Fury who was coming off a dreadful performance vs an MMA fighter.

Bowe beat 6 fighters who held Heavyweight titles Tubbs, Dokes, Thomas, Hide, Holyfield, Seldon.

Fury beat 2 fighters who held Heavyweight titles Wilder, Wladimir.

So you can discredit Bowe's resume all you want but Fury hasn't got much filler to his resume either the only difference between them is Bowe has by far the best single win over Holyfield in his prime.

 

All good mate. Foreman is my number 3 because of his demolition of the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world, and winning back the title at 45 years old. Those are two of the greatest wins in heavyweight history, arguably the two greatest wins in heavyweight history period. And they're 21 years apart. That is absolutely absurd, and unheard of.

If someone had written this into a fictional novel, it would've been laughed off as unrealistic. That accomplishment is seriously underrated today, and Foreman doesn't nearly get enough credit for either victory "Oh Frazier was shot, and a stylistically favorable matchup for him" "Moorer was outboxing Foreman the whole fight until he got caught with a lucky one in a million punch". I hear this all the time here. It's ridiculous.

Does this mean Foreman should be ranked above the likes of Lewis, Holmes, Marciano? No. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with doing so.

 

Dokes, Thomas, Seldon weren't even ranked when they faced Bowe which goes to show how poor his resume is that you have to resort to bringing them up to begin with.

I didn't bring up Fury. But I'm not convinced Bowe beats Breidis or Dubois so not sure how relevant Fury is.

A prime Bowe got pummeled by Andrew Golota. That's impossible to explain away. He also arguably lost to Tubbs

 

Looks like a solid list. Teddy knows his stuff and gave excellent reasons for his picks.

 

Bowe was definitely not in his best shape when he fought Golota. He wasn't even close. In addition, there was a mismatch of style. And let's remember that despite everything, he won those two wars. Despite what people say, he was in the game until the end.

Both of those fights ended those great warriors