Time - What Fighters Have Lost The Most...

Stanley Ketchel was considered perhaps the greatest of the middles until about the advent of the '80s. He is mostly unknown today and thus underappreciated, but his power and grit were legendary.

 

Tyson's stock will retain value In fact it may even move up a few places once a full perspective is made of Mike.

When you examine, his accomplishments:

Youngest Champ in HW History
Unifying the titles individually (as opposed to inheriting all three)
9 title defenses (12-4 in title fights)
20+ wins over ranked contenders
Regaining two thirds of the title a decade after he first became champion.

Tyson's single biggest win may fall short in comparision when compared to Ali single biggest win or Frazier's or Foreman's but his overall body of work compensates for this short coming. Foreman had wins over Frazier 2x, Lyle, Norton and Moorer. But for his 76+ wins he cannot put 10 wins solid wins together.

Holyfield's stock unfortunately will drop a little as a result of Holyfield never showing consistency in his career and as a result never really showed dominance. At times he showed brilliance, courage and unparalell determination. Other times he showed recklessness, he fought down to the level of his opponent. He sometimes epitomized the phrase "the hardest way to make an easy living" by brawling when he should have boxed. Ultimately, he was a better fighter than he was a champion.
When you actually think about it his best wins were fights in which he walked in the challenger or non-champion.

Dokes - Non Champion
Douglas - Challenger
Bowe II - Challenger
Mercer - Non Champion
Tyson I - Challenger
Rahman - Non-Champion


I don't think his stock will plummet but I think time will afford him the same fate as Joe Frazier; his stock unfortunately will decline but his respect will remain.

 

..................Another unfortunate thing is that Holyfield seems only to be remembered as a heavyweight.

 

Sal,

Holyfield is remembered as a Heavyweight because he campaigned the majority of his career in that division. He has not been a cruiserweight since 1988. 19+ years as a HW and 4 years as a cruiserweight; its easy to give him the distinction of being a heavyweignt considering Evander tried most of his career to remind us that he was infact a HW.

I think Wladimir stock will go up. Not top 10 but one day he maybe remembered as a *gasp* "great"

Jack Johnson's has dropped
So has Sonny Liston's

 

..............I know, I know, I followed him since the Olympics.

Just a general gripe. :bart

 

Well, while Tyson´s achievements are nice - also he wasn´t the youngest hw champ, youngest belt-holder: yes, youngest champ: no - i don´t think he will ever climb beyond a place at the lower top10. His short prime, the weakness of the 80s´ hw division and his ducking of Lewis hurts him too much imo.
I agree on Holy. There was a time he was knocking on the top10 but now he isn´t even top15 anymore at my list.

 

No, prize fighters would very much still be rated in the 20s: Cribb, Mendoza, Mace, Sullivan etc would be rated with the Dempsey's, Corbett, Jeffries, Johnson etc.... That is even in the 20's over 200 years of history. And IMO a less bias opinion as there was little film, thus everyone was at a more even base for debate.

 

People talk about Lennox Lewis's stock is slowly rising, but whenever I see an all-time list on this forum he's often as high as 4 or 5 !
I dont see anything slow about his rise in the all-time ratings. And I dont believe he necessarily deserves higher placing (personally, I'd have him a bit lower).
Truth is, Lewis's retirement as undisputed champion made his post-career recognition relatively smooth and instant.

On the other hand, Holyfield's lingering and decline over the last 10 years has fooled many of you into believing he was always blighted by "inconsistency". But he was not really inconsistent in his prime, the only guys to beat him were Bowe (twice) and Moorer (on a VERY CLOSE decision, later avenged). When Holyfield "should have" retired he was obliged to fight Lennox Lewis, but up til then his record is hard to argue with. Going 1-2 against Bowe is not much of a blemish if you actually sit down and watch the fights. And any reasonable observers knows that Holyfield was already slipping from '93 onwards. On viewing and reviewing almost their entire career fights, I'd rate Lewis and Holyfield dead-even.