The top 10 modern heavyweights of all time

Tiger Jack Fox was mostly a light heavyweight and was never ranked in the top 10 at heavyweight to my knowledge. Would've been a good match-up though because he was a bit of a spoiler and a crafty defensive fighter who could've given Louis more trouble than most.

Louis vs Trammell may have been a good fight in 1936 but in Louis' defense he was coming off a devastating loss to Schmeling that year.

Haynes seemed destined to success after stopping Primo Carnera twice but it all seemed to go downhill for him after those wins.

Blunt scored some big wins throughout his career but he also suffered many setbacks.

I may have worded my statement wrong, my real point was that there were no outstanding black challengers for Louis that he could be accused of ducking (as the many people do, including the thread starter). My belief is that it can only be considered ducking if the champion blatantly refuses to fight the number 1 challenger out there. There was no Harry Wills or Sam Langford for Louis to fight.

I agree that the Simon rematch was unnecessary. I believe Louis however donated all of his purse and basically fought for nothing against a relatively easy opponent.

I think the Bob Pastor fight worked as somewhat of an eliminator for Franklin to see how easily he could dispatch a former Louis opponent (and he was expected to). He ended up losing and quickly went downhill after that.

"FRANKLIN RULES 5 TO 8 FAVORITE OVER BOB PASTOR
Victor Tonight May Fight Louis in Summer."

-Chicago Daily Tribute

I also agree that Louis could have fought Ray. I think that he likely had the best case to fight Louis.

 

Chris Warren where do you rate Archie Moore? His record against men above 200lb is 22-1 with 19 kayos including whupping # 1 rated Nino Valdez and # 2 rated Bob Baker both 6'3 215lbers.

 

Would it even matter had Louis fought Elmer Ray? Ray after all weighed under 200 lbs and thus couldn't have been any good.

Tell me about all these great 205+ lb black heavyweights that Louis should have fought.

 

In fact he did.

The bums of the month were actually world class fighters, just not in Louis' class.

Roy Jones and James Toney were successful.

Moore by the way was nowhere close to being a "natural" middleweight. The man walked around at 200 lbs, him making the 175 limit was miraculous.

 

Since Sonny Liston:

10 Riddick Bowe
9 Sonny Liston
8 Joe Frazier
7 Mike Tyson
6 Lennox Lewis
5 Evander Holyfield
4 George Foreman
3 Rocky Marciano
2 Larry Holmes
1 Muhammad Ali

Honourable Mentions: Moore, Patterson, Johansson, Williams, Foley, Quarry, Ellis, Norton, Whitherspoon, Vitali Klitschko and Wlad Klitschko

 

I guess you're counting Marciano's activity on the computer fight since it's since Liston?

 

Liston turned pro in 1953...

 

Alright. I got ya. So you're not just evaluating those 2 years of Marciano, I imagine. Okay I get you, not trying to be difficult here .

 

Anyone notice the thread title... "top 10 modern hws of all time"? Not sure how "modern of all time" works... something like "best of the last 10 years of all time"?

This seems like alot of trouble to go through to just say "I think Louis and Marciano are overrated". Why not just say "post-Marciano"?

[BTW... saying "Louis ducked black fighters, gets no credit" is more than a little disingenuous when you consider that others (Holmes, Bowe in particular) can easily be accused of more egregious ducks.]