The Fight City's top 12 HWs

I like the top 3. Ali and Louis are always going to be the top 2, but I think Jack Johnson would be a great #3 as far as just resume and greatness go, rather than H2H. His resume is underrated, most people rightfully chastise him for his HW title reign, but he cleaned out his division on the way there as well as anybody ever. McVey, Jeannette, Langford, Burke, Ferguson, Burns, Lang, Martin, all the top guys of his time were all defeated by him, most of them several times. I think he rightfully deserves his #3 spot.

Wills at number #4 is a new one, and it's bizzare, but not entirely unwelcome. How Dempsey is above Foreman and Lewis is beyond me. So is Lewis being outside the top 10 entirely. The rest is fine.

 

Foreman and liston so high is wild… also why is rocky at 5?

 

I am not the biggest fan of Lewis and some of his fans overrate him H2H. With that being said, Lewis has quality wins over Tua, Mercer, Ruddock, Bruno, Morrison, Briggs, and yes, Vitaly. His resume (excluding past it versions of Holyfield and Tyson) is better than the majority of heavyweights out there. Outside of Ali, Foreman, Holyfield and Frazier, you could make a case he beat better fighters than the rest. Yes, he has two one punch stoppage losses and he sometimes struggled with clever boxers (i.e. Holyfield despite being past it in their second fight). But his positives outweigh his negatives.

Not having Lewis in the top 10 is absurd. He has better wins than Holmes, Jefferies, Johnson, Marciano, Liston, Dempsey, and at least comparable quality of wins to Louis. I would say he is a minimum top 8 guy.

My:

1. Ali - fastest heavy ever, creative, beat the best competition in history.

2. Louis - best combination puncher, longest reign despite losing 4 years of it, beat pretty good competition and only lost once in his physical prime.

3. Holmes - best jab, good footwork and never lost in his physical prime and beat pretty good competition. He wasn't as gifted as some of the guys below him but maximized his talent. I could see a case for him being lower though.

4. Foreman - has a devastating win over a legit ATG in/near his prime in Frazier, another devastating win over a top 25 atg in Norton, and some solid wins in Lyle and Moorer. Outside of his 6-7 best wins, his resume is shallow but i.) h2h, its hard to imagine many guys beating him and ii.) his very best wins are better than most other heavies best wins even if his resume doesn't have the depth that others do.

5. Liston - the more destructive of the technical punchers. Huge reach, devastating power in both hands, a bunch of solid wins. Main reason i rank him high is due to h2h factors. I have no problem with anyone ranking him as low as #10 but no lower.

6. Lewis - best of the super heavyweights, best straight right hand arguably, one of the best jabs, and beat better competition than majority of the top 10. Only reason he isn't higher is due to the susceptibility to once punch ko's.

7. Holyfield - inconsistent, didn't have the same big weapons as the guys above him (except Holmes). But excluding Ali, Holyfield has more depth in his resume than anyone. A win each over Bowe, Moorer, Mercer, old dangerous Big George, Dokes, post prison but still decent Tyson, etc. Yep that's a deeper resume than most guys here. Great counter puncher too.

8. Frazier - would struggle vs some of the bigger punching SHW'S as he was primarily a left hooker. But he only lost to 2 ATG's. Has one of the greatest wins ever vs Ali. Best body puncher and cutter of the ring in HW history. One of the best left hookers. While he matches up poorly vs guys like Lewis and Foreman, he matches exceedingly well vs boxers like Holmes, Holyfield and Usyk among others.

9. Marciano - best workrate, great power, fought and beat everyone in his era. He isn't tested vs 200 plus pound big hitters and his relative lack of speed would make it virtually impossible for him to beat guys like Lewis or Vitaly. Like Frazier, he matches up very well vs boxer mover types.

10. Tyson - could be ranked anywhere from #7-10. Unified all titles and defended his title 10 times. Beat some solid fighters. Best combination puncher since Louis and best body puncher since Frazier. Fastest heavyweight since Ali. His power and speed would crush some of the guys above him. Only reason he isn't ranked higher is due to him burning out so early.

Honourable mention :

Usyk - too few fights but 3 amazing wins (2x Joshua, 1 x Fury, and let's be honest, none of these fights were actually split decisions - this was just biased judging. Best southpaw hw ever. Unfortunately, he has had too few fights at this weight to be top 10 even though H2H he would trouble the majotity of my top 10. We know he can dominate large SHW's but i need to see him dominate smaller of medium sized fast heavyweights before ranking him in my top 10.

Dempsey - huge pioneer, one of the fastest and most gifted hw, unfortunately was too inactive to be top 10 when champion.

Johnson - even worse title reign than Dempsey but he was an amazing athlete with good defensive skills and a big uppercut. But like Dempsey, i can't rank him above guys who actually had strong reigns.

Wlad - sorry but i will never rank a hugger and clincher like Wlad. Should have been disqualified in his fights numerous times. Should be disqualified permanently for the damage he did to HW boxing.

Jefferies - like Johnson, very hard to judge on film. No idea whether his style could hold up vs big modern hard hitting heavies.

My list is based on a combination of H2H, achievement, over all ability and gut feeling. Its not an objective science.

 

I feel bad for Wills but he is virtually impossible to judge h2h. There is no footage of the man in his prime. Numerous writers said he was slow but that could just have been the racism of his time being used against him. I can't see any case for a top 10 spot when we simply don't know how his skills would hold up against the heavyweights that came after him. Best i can see is a case for top 20.

 

Looking at the list, it seems heavyweights tend to have more flaws than guys in other divisions. In a way, its such a pity that Usyk is so old. He is the most well rounded heavyweight that i have seen in years. His style would cause major problems for so many guys in the top 10.

 

Awful list way too much nostalgia for older fighters no way Willis and Johnson deserve to be that high over Lewis. Marciano is also way too high and Wlad should be in there somewhere.

 

Rocky as the fifth is fine.
Why Lewis is eleventh?

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I have Wills at #13, much lower than Fight City, but higher than most and incidentally 1 place higher than I place Dempsey.

I think an argument can be made, that is just about within the realms of being defensible, that Wills had one of the, if not the, deepest win resume in HW history. His key wins were:

Sam Langford x 13 - admittedly Langford was past his very peak by the start of their series and borderline shot by the end of it.
Sam McVea x 3
Joe Jeanette
Fred Fulton
Jeff Clark x 7
Luis Firpo
Willie Meehan
Gunboat Smith
Kid Norfolk
Charley Weinhert
Denver Ed Martin - admittedly way past prime
Battling Jim Johnson

There are other HWs with better top wins than those of Harry's, but there can't be many, if any, whose 32nd best win was as good as Wills' equivalent.