Eight entries; Cleveland Willaiams Larry Middleton Tommy Morrison Henry Akinwanda Mike The Bounty Hunter Fres Oquendor Leotis Martin and I'll take nominations for number eight, only criteria 1960 onwards and not a majorly recognised champion.
Cleveland Williams imo is overrated. Not saying he wasn't good or couldn't punch but his resume is loaded with filler. Fres Oquendo is highly interesting although his fights are not. The guy is this generations Jimmy Young. Fought good opponents and arguably defeated many of them but because his style was flat out dull he got rooked quite often. Even two of his stoppage losses were premature. Yes Tua had him badly hurt but he was still on his feet and moving around. He was up as much as 9-1 on a couple of cards to me you need to put the man on the canvas or have him defenseless to take the fight away from him like that. And the Ruiz bout was a horrible stoppage. Many ppl feel he defeated Holyfield, Byrd, and James Toney. I agree although they were close except for Toney. Morrison could punch and had great offensive skills. However he was easy to hit, had poor stamina and a shaky chin. Still he defeated Foreman that has to count for something. As foreman would go on to beat Moorer and I would say Briggs. Would of been nice to see Tommy fight at least one or two prime opponents in the early 90's. While I think he would of likely lost I could see him in very exciting fights with Moorer and even Holyfield until he got stopped.
Herbie Hide was good. Again a lot of filler in his resume but he did stop Bentt. Stopped a completely washed up Tucker. He came up small against Bowe and Vitali. His competition was bad but he looked good. Morrison vs Hide would of been nice fight. As for Akinwande. He was so awkward. Those long arms and his height made him difficult but his pathetic showing of just holding against a serious puncher in Lewis leads me to believe that good fighters with height would own him.
Lot of toss up matches. I'll take Cleveland Williams only because when faced with a big puncher Akinwande was a big letdown. However his height and reach could pose problems. I'll take Oquendo in a snoozer. I have to admit as much as his style is terrible I feel he faced and defeated better opponents than Hide. Morrison vs Hunter is 50/50 Morrison is the better fighter and I would lean towards him but he had too many off nights struggling with Joe Hipp, Purrity, Bentt- to rule out the mercurial Hunter completely. Martin vs Middleton - I have to watch more of Middleton to make a proper assessment.
Akinwanda Terrell-like. Oquendo good spoiler. Hunter very underrated, can surprise and I use Bonavena as a guide to Middleton/Martin.
