The Best 3 All Time Heavyweights - Primes.

I didn't knock Foreman for beating Chuvalo, I said it was an OK win, which it was. An old Holmes was a better win than an old Chuvalo.

The only reason Patterson won the "linear" title earlier was because there were less belts and Spinks was fighting guys like a coked up Cooney and dropping belts rather than fight Tyson.

Even if your going to be harsh on him, he was still the youngest ever beltholder in history which is a great accomplishment...

 

Strange list. What's your reasoning for there being no Ali?

 

Superior dominance. When he retired in 1948 at 34, Louis had proven himself superior to all his opposition either in the first match or in a rematch.

At the same age, Ali had not really proven himself better than Norton over the course of three fights. And there was also Jimmy Young. I have not reseen the Young fight in a number of years, but I remember Young as having the edge but Ali getting the decision.

Next month one of you fellows might convince me to go on the basis of superior opposition beaten and thus put Ali back at #1.

 

Louis should probably be in second place, actually. Sure I want to stick out, but...

 

Well, doesn´t matter. Fact is, Mike won it later than Patterson and that´s not beeing harsh on Tyson that is just a fact. Like it or not.

 

Ali stayed in the game way too long on the account of some gift decisions he received. Doug Jones beat him, Norton beat him all three times, Shavers beat him, Jimmy Young beat him and his win over Frazier in the FOTC 1974 rematch is debatable as well. If Joe had three more rounds in that fight, he probably wins the fight because Ali was slowing down over the last few rounds. Either way, too much money was invested into Ali, so there's no way he was going to lose to Frazier and Norton twice. Boxing wouldn't have allowed that.

I could have put him # 3 ahead of Marciano which is the obvious spot after Johnson and Louis, but Marciano gets little respect around here and nobody can argue with perfection.

Ali and Dempsey would round out the top five of my list.

 

1.Tyson
2.Ali
3.louis

order of them three but if my all time list louis might not be there.

 

Alright, Tyson was still the youngest beltholder ever and 2nd youngest "Linear" Champion of all time. Keep in mind when Patterson won it, he only had to win one fight and that was against a well past his best Archie Moore who had slid. Tyson had to beat WBC champ Berbick, IBF champ Tucker, and WBA champ Smith, just to finally get Spinks in the ring for the linear title.

 

Ali staying in the game too long doesn't affect his prime standings. Jones-Ali was an even fight but that Ali was still a little green and it was before his best fights.
Saying Shavers, Young, Frazier in the rematch of FOTC, Norton all three times beat him is stretching it wayyyy past the limit and using that as basis to keep a prime Ali out of the top 3 ever is as well. If Frazier had 3 more rounds he might have won, but guess what he didn't, and Ali fought accordingly to the 15 rounds.

 

1. Ali
2. Louis
3. Holyfield
4. Tyson
5. Lewis

 

Funny, how things like this gets bandied about and people still talk about how "sacred" Ali is. So he lost every fight he was in that was even remotely close? If that was true he wouldn't be in my top 3 either, probably.

And, yeah, you forget a couple. Foreman was drugged, Lyle would have beaten Ali if he wasn't prematurely stopped, Patterson if his back hadn't given out, Liston if he hadn't been forced to throw those fights, Terrel if Ali hadn't poked his eye out, and so forth and so forth. Methinks Ali had Keyser Soeze as manager. Or maybe it's really him who is Soeze... Mindblowing, isn't it?

 

And how was his chin any worse than Joe's?

 

H2H....Lennox and Ali in no order with Foreman as the 3rd.

Everyone below the 3 are muddled together.

 

Since the question of this thread is about prime and not resumes, I would say:

1.Ali + Tyson
3.Louis

Tyson before he joined King, was the Angel Of Death (in boxing terms). Imagine Floyd Patterson (the best boxer that Ali had seen and he admitted it) with immense power and a chin.

His prime was extremely short.

In terms of resumes it would be:

1.Ali
2.Louis
10+ Tyson