TIER LIST: Heavyweight Champions by title fights (1990 to present)

Discussion in 'World Boxing Forum' started by Finkel, Sep 26, 2021.



  1. Finkel

    Finkel Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Here is a tier list of for the Heavyweight champions since 1990 using the Heavyweight Wx10 Ranking System for Title Fights.

    The premise is ranking all Heavyweights Champions based on how many top 10 opponents they have defeated during title fights. Just to be clear this is not a ranking of who is the best fighter.
    Obviously this ranking system doesn't take into account the quality of the victory, but it does give us an idea of which fighters are actually fighting and beating other top fighters during their Championship reigns.

    Rules:
    1. For a win to qualify as
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    , the opponent needed to be ranked by
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    independent ranking bodies at the time of victory:

    2. No draws, only wins.
    3. You can beat the same guy twice.
    4. Title fights include the initial victory and any defences made.
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    (Morrison ’93),
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    (W. Klitschko ’04),
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    (Liakhovich ’06),
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    (McCall ’95),
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    (Valuev ’07),
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    (Tyson ’90),
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    (Moorer ’94),
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    (Valuev ’09),
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    (Bent, ’94),
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    (Briggs ’07),
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    (Ruiz ’05),
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    (Brewster ’06),
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    (Glazkov ’16),
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    (Rahman ’06),
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    (Holyfield ’94),
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    (Foreman ’93),
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    (Maskaev ’08),
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    (Joshua ’19),
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    (W. Klitschko ’03)

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    (Holyfield ’92, Hide ’95),
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    (Klitschko ’00, Holyfield ’02),
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    (Lewis ’94, Holmes ’95),
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    (Lewis ’01, Tony ’06),
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    (Ruiz ’05, Barrett ’06),
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    (Joshua ’21, Joshua '22)

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    (Frazier '73, Norton '74, Moorer ’94),
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    (Sanders ’04, Peter ’08, Adamek ’11),
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    (Holyfield ’01, Johnson ’02, Rahman ’03),
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    (Stiverne ’15, Ortiz ’18, Ortiz ’19)

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    (Klitschko ’15, Wilder ’20, Wilder '21, Whyte '22)
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    (Douglas ’90, Foreman ’91, Bowe ’93, Tyson ’96, Tyson ’97, Moorer ’97),
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    (Klitschko '15, Takam '17, Parker '18, Povetkin '18, Ruiz Jr. '19, Pulev '20)

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    (Berbick ’86, Smith ’87, Thomas ’87, Tucker ’87, Biggs ’87, Spinks ’88, Williams ’89, Bruno ’96, Seldon ’96)

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    (Tucker '93, Bruno ’93, Akinwande ’97, Briggs ’98, Holyfield ’99, Grant ’00, Tua ’00, Rahman ’01, Tyson ’02, V. Klitschko ’03)
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    (Byrd ’00, Byrd ’06, Brock ’06, Brewster ’07, Ibragimov ’08, Chagaev ’09, Chambers ’10, Peter ’10, Haye ’11, Thompson ’12, Povetkin ’13, Pulev ’14, Jennings ’15)

    @sasto, @JunlongXiFan, & @Finkel

    Note: TBRB rankings run from 2012. PBO rankings run from 1993. Any fights prior to 2012 are based on a rough average of The Ring and PBO. Any fights prior to 1993, are using The Ring and compared against Boxrec and my own recollections as a rough guide. Though this does give more weight to The Ring ratings on the whole.
    p.s. I welcome suggestions, feedback, corrections and comments.
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2022
  2. Finkel

    Finkel Well-Known Member Full Member

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    I'll leave this post as a place holder for an eventual Wx5, when I have some free time.
     
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  3. Finkel

    Finkel Well-Known Member Full Member

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    So what are you thoughts? Does this give some perspective on the relative strength of reign of the various heavyweight champions over the last 30 years or so?

    Again, this is not a who is best list. Just a bit of fun. Cheers!
     
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  4. Pepsi Dioxide

    Pepsi Dioxide Boxing Addict Full Member

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    I like it, a Couple of questions
    Why is Ruiz getting credit for his ND over Toney?
    Tucker and Golota werent ranked when Lewis beat them?
    Holmes didn't crack the top ten when he fought Holyfield after his Mercer win?

    Also why not include wins over top ten guys outside of title fights? (Ex: Bowes v Holyfield 3, Holyfield vs Mercer etc)
     
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  5. Finkel

    Finkel Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Thank you very much. I'll update it for Ruiz. Toney is a difficult case to assess I guess. He beats Ruiz, but fails the drug test. Also it was difficult to know whether or not to rank him as top 10. So removing him makes things cleaner.
    But that was a mistake on my part, I caught a couple of NC and Draws. I'll go back and check the rest of them.
    Cheers!

    I used the PBO title fight records as a base point. Although, I am guessing their master database tracks the full resume of each fighter, they don't actually publish it once a fighter retires. But I do agree it would be interesting to look at total top 10 fights. It's certainly doable. Might take a fair bit of time though. I still feel this is a good reflection of what a Champion does though.
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2021
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  6. OvidsExile

    OvidsExile At a minimum, a huckleberry over your persimmon. Full Member

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    Excellent work. Any chance of doing this back to 1960?
     
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  7. Finkel

    Finkel Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Hey sorry I missed two of your questions there. Golota was ranked 30 by PBO, but he was ranked #5 by The Ring, that is a pretty big discrepancy. I imagine it was because PBO is purely resume based, and Golota taking DQ's is going to have affected his resume, but I am guessing the Ring was willing to overlook that, as he had been giving Bowe such a beating. But there is an argument there whether or not to include him. I'm going with no, because he took 2 losses back to back getting DQ'd the exact same way.

    But you are correct Tony Tucker should count. The PBO title rankings started in '93, so I guess it just missed that fight. I'll add him for Lewis.

    Regarding Holmes, unfortunately The Ring doesn't make their archive available. So it is probably likely that Holmes did indeed crack the top 10 after beating Mercer. But because he won and lost in the same calendar year of 1992, he isn't in the Rings 1991 or 1992 annual rankings. So there is no way for me to make that call really. I suspect the same thing happened with Charles Martin after he "beat" Glazkov

    As I say things got difficult to rank pre-1993. So I also suspect there will be some discussion about what should/shouldn't be included on Tyson's list.
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2021
  8. Finkel

    Finkel Well-Known Member Full Member

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    I would love to. But to be honest, you would probably need a boxing historian to do that justice.
    It wouldn't really be fair on the fighters themselves for me to even try something like that. haha
    I was old enough to watch the 90s on TV, and with the lists going back to '93 it was easy enough to fill in the gaps, but I wouldn't trust myself with going earlier than that. To be honest, I'm not entirely confident on Tyson's list, as whilst I do recall his major fights and the buzz surrounding them in the late 80s I was still quite young. But I thought it was important to include close to his full list.

    I welcome corrections on that
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2021
  9. james5000

    james5000 2010's poster of the decade Full Member

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    No Joseph Parker?
     
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  10. Finkel

    Finkel Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Good spot, I was adding the modern fighters in by hand, forgot to move him across.
    Thank you. He was a Wx0 champion. Ruiz Jr. wasn't in the top 10s pre-fight, but was added to TBRB's rankings at #10 following the loss to Parker.
     
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  11. Finkel

    Finkel Well-Known Member Full Member

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    What are peoples thoughts on Valuev's resume?

    Barrett (PBO 12, Ring 6)
    Ruiz '08 (PBO 6, Ring unranked, though he was number 10 the previous year)

    It's easy enough to say Barrett was a top 10 win, but Ruiz '08 is a little more tricky...
    Ruiz loses to Valuev in '05, then Chagaev in '06. Is still ranked #10 by The Ring end of 2006. Then beats Tisdale '07, and drops out of their rankings for 2007. Then beats McCline '08 in a final eliminator before the fight with Valuev '08.

    Thoughts?
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2021
  12. Abysswalker

    Abysswalker Member Full Member

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    I find this list very interesting and wanted to thank you for preparing it. Will comment later when I have time.
     
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  13. JabbaTheGut

    JabbaTheGut Active Member Full Member

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    Why has Tyson got nine if this is since 1990
     
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  14. Dubblechin

    Dubblechin Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    First: Ring produces ratings every month, not annually. All of the Ring ratings every month going back nearly 100 years are available in issues of Ring. So your RING magazine data is flawed if you leave out 11 of the 12 ratings every year. You're missing a lot of boxers who were ranked in the months in between.

    Second: TBRB was founded in 2012. I don't know why you'd choose a ratings body that has only existed for less than a decade. I would suggest adding Boxing Illustrated/International Boxing Digest ratings, because their ratings WERE ALSO MONTHLY, go back even further than Ring and they stopped producing magazines in 2011 ... and you could pick up the ratings from TBRB from there. You could also go all the way back to the 1920s with a combination of Ring, Boxing Illustrated and TBRB and not have to depend on your "recollections."

    Third: PBO rankings were the IBO ratings until 2014 (when the IBO decided to actually stop relying on ratings by one guy). So they aren't independent at all. They were a sanctioning body's ratings for almost two decades (nearly their entire existence).

    The IBO considered Pinklon Thomas the heavyweight champion in 1992, Lionel Butler the heavyweight champion in 1993, Danell Nicholsonn the heavyweight champion in 1994, Jimmy Thunder the heavyweight champion in 1994 and 1995, and Brian Nielsen the heavyweight champion from 1996 to 1998 ... until they decided to go with Lennox Lewis in 1999 and Wlad (when he beat Byrd) in 06. (Which, if you're going to name a new champ, why do you go with that fight and not the winner of the Brewster-Liakhovich classic a few weeks earlier? Brewster won his title against Wlad.)

    So they don't really fit the bill as an independent.

    Good luck.
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2021
  15. Dubblechin

    Dubblechin Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    Why does Mike Tyson have nine if most of the fights included took place in the 1980s ... you need TWO ratings bodies to rank the person AT THE TIME of the victory for him to be a contender ... and NONE of the ratings bodies (other than Ring) existed in the '80s?

    :hang

    Good idea. The execution is a little flawed, though. Let's call it a work in progress.

    If he used Ring and Boxing Illustrated, Tyson probably has more. (Just a guess. ;))
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2021