The weakest lineal heavyweight champ

At the time Ali fought Spinks, even though he was far past his prime, by then the era itself was past its prime. There was no obvious "best" heavyweight other than Ali. We only have the benefit of hindsight now to know that Ali was virtually shot and Holmes could have beaten him even then. But I don't think it's fair to use that assessment - Spinks did something almost nobody would have expected. He beat Ali, who was coming off a nice run of victories, fair and square.

And I honestly don't think any of those boxers you mentioned would have been favoured against Holmes leading up to the Spinks fight. Those fighters were largely dismissed and derided. Nobody would have given them a chance. Even *with* the benefit of hindsight, I can't see any of them beating that version of Holmes.

 

I still think Leon Spinks, followed by Buster Douglas. Rahman, Briggs, and most of the other names mentioned on this thread were all very much factors in the division, both before and after they won the title. Douglas was obscure before the Tyson fight, and faded back to obscurity after losing it in a pathetic showing in his very next fight. Douglas never fought for a title again. He never even fought a highly ranked opponent again. At least Spinks fought Holmes after Ali.

 

Hasim Rahman for sure, Buster Douglas was 10 times the figher Rahman was.

 

First name that came to mind was Spinks.

 

Rahman certainly had more good wins.

 

That's debatable.

Douglas beat Tyson, Berbick, McCall, Page, Mike Williams
Rahman beat Lewis, Sanders, Barrett, Sullivan, Kali Meehan

Both had disappointing losses - Douglas was ko'd by Mike White,
Rahman was dominated by John Ruiz and ko'd twice by Maskaev.

Both have clearly better resume than Briggs - 48 yo Foreman, 44 yo Mercer, Lyakhovic and that's it.
As well as losses to Darrol Wilson and Sedrick Fields

 

Rahman had a solid career. He was regarded as a top 10 fighter for 5 years.

In addition to Lewis, Sanders is a good win. Meehan, Sullivan, and Barrett were also solid. He also had the draw against Toney, and the more controversial draw against Tua that could and is argued he deseved the nod in. And the first Tua loss was also a controversial stoppage with him ahead on the cards.

In regards to Douglas, I'm not so sure. I would agree both were better and more successful than Briggs though.

 

Unlike Leon, Buster could have been a HW ATG with the discipline and work ethic of Leon's kid brother. The manner of his upset over Tyson was monstrous. It wasn't merely a huge oddsmaker's upset, like Clay-Liston or Braddock-Baer. Mike got largely dominated except for the knockdown he suddenly scored, and was cleanly counted out. This wasn't Liston quitting on his stool, refusing to get up in the rematch, or Max Baer clowning away the title. It was a beat-down with a conclusive ending.

Douglas beat former champion Berbick and future champion McCall to get to Tyson. On the way up, he also defeated former champion Page. Four wins over a quartet of HW champions like Tyson, Berbick, McCall and Page [again, the former three in consecutive bouts] is far too much success for Buster to merit mention in this thread. I don't think anybody sincerely believes Douglas is comparable to Leon Spinks in this regard. If he maintained Tyson condition for Holyfield, would Evander have dethroned him?

 

To help the Douglas, Briggs Rahman debate, I am going to post their positions in the annual rankings:

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1999 - None of them ranked

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I disagree with either Rahman or Spinks as the worst.

Both defeated the real champion clearly.

I think I would say Hart or Sharkey are more questionable

Hart just won a box-off with another contender

Sharkey got declared champion after a fight he probably lost.

 

Regardless of whether or not he literally deserved to win the title that day, Sharkey is an order of magnitude above the other people being talked about. We are talking about a guy who was a dominant force in the heavyweight division over a substantial period.

Hart was one of the weaker lineal champions, but he probably deserved to be champion. He beat Jack Johnson to get his place in that fight for the vacant title, and Johnson had pretty much cleaned out the division.