The top 10 heavyweights never to fight for the title.

1 - Peter Jackson - It's hard to find someone from that era who doesn't crow about Jackson as the greatest fighter they'd ever seen - and we include here some guys that saw Sullivan, Corbett etc. - or at least the greatest fighter of the era. If he wasn't the #1 HW ever to fight for the title, he was the guy with the best chance to have lifted the title, had he got to fight for it.

2 - Harry Wills - Great fighter in his own right I think the chances of Dempsey beating him are greatle exaggerated by many, I see it as close to a 50/50 fight. At the very least, let's a gree that Wills is better than Firpo. May have fought better comp than any other guy that didn't fight for the HW title.

3 - Sam Langford - You can't be sure that he would have beaten all the guys i'm going to list below him consistantly - he couldn't do so with Wills, who is above him - but Langford could have a fight with anybody in history without getting outclassed in my view, Tyson, Lewis, Liston, whoever, so a top three spot doesn't seem unreasonable, even on a HW list...Langford could have beaten Burns, would have beaten Johnson post-Jeffries, for me, and even past his peak would have been little less than 50/50 v the massive Willard (who I favour slightly).

4 - Sam Mcvey - McVey has my respect as a fighter, sounds like a cracking puncher with incredible endurance. He would trouble anyone in history. But maybe the guy he would trouble least, maybe, would have been Johnson. Maybe Sam could have got him once Jack went soft, but I wouldn'g bet on it.

5 - Joe Jeanette - I have Jeanette below McVey because I think his style would be more troubling generally in a head to head sense. Another one that Johnson would have kept out in my opinion.

6 - Ike Ibeabuchi - Probably generally underated on the classic board. Had some serious firepower, a great chin and a high punch output. He had the lot really. Would trouble the guys above him on this list as much as the guys below him. Would trouble the guys on your top ten all time list, never mind your denied titlist list.

7 - Joe Choynski - Did Choynski never fight for the title? How can this be true he fought everybody...well if it's true, he belongs on this list! Sounds like an all time puncher.

8 - Peter Maher - Speaking of all time punchers, this guy seems to be this hardest hitter that everybody - and I do mean everybody - fought during that era. Do you consider that he fought for the title? He had that fight for the title that Corbett "put up" which Maher himself denounced, then he had the fight with Fitz, but surely the title didn't really change hands until Fitz bested Corbett, which comes later? Here's another one that saw Jackson as the best he ever saw.

9 - Teofilo Stevenson - Ok, he's an amatuer, and nobody really knows. I can't really see him lifting the title in the 70's and I have only seen snippets of footage, so this is mostly a guess. Nine is just an arbitary slot.

10 - Thad Spencer! - OK, he was exposed, but in a weaker era, say post Dempsey pre-Louis, or 80's I bet he would have had a punt at the title and today he would have held a belt in my opinion.