Bowe doesn't fit with the criteria I use. He got all the breaks, had a very well managed career and a great trainer; but he was missing that one key attribute for greatness: discipline. As I said, that's part of the package for me.
I like it when I look at your criteria. Especially Walcott at number 2. Personally, I´d pick Jeffries, Dempsey and Patterson over Lewis and Frazier and possibly over Marciano.
Yeah, this one is very hard and needs some revising. Dempsey may very well deserve a higher spot as does Foreman. Considering how late he got into boxing, I think Foreman did extraordinarily well. If he had started when 5-6 years younger, who knows what he would have done?
Liston's only real weakness was an inability to cut off the ring ,imo. He had a tendency to just follow you around,unlike his sometime protege Foreman ,who was geometrically excellent in this department.
I thought Foreman was not great at cutting off the ring, esp. eg. against Jimmy Young, and against Tommy Morrison (and almost everyone else in his comeback), and even against Peralta. Most of his opponents were handpicked come-forward or stuck-in-concrete types though, so he never really needed to be great at cutting off the ring.
I thought you said 'whether fulfilled or not.' Bowe was given the right opportunities, but he could have made himself better.
Foreman mentally broke after Zaire. To me, Foreman's downfall is much greater than Tyson's one because it translated more in results and physically. Ali was surprised at how great he was at cutting off the ring. Alas, the rope a dope came into existence. Foreman was great at cutting the ring off.
Yes, but he fell short because of intrinsic factors, personal defiencies, not because external ones. And this is about the external ones. For me it doesn't mean much to say "if he only he was a bit more discplined, stable, mentally stronger etc". It's like saying "if only he was stronger, faster, bigger, smarter...". The intangibles are just as big a part of what you bring to the table as the rest of it. I find it much more interesting to think "if he only he got the breaks others got". And that's what I'm doing here. If all these fighters had started at a young age, had been as well trained and well managed as possible and had been given the opportunities, what would they have achieved? It's by answering that question that I do the ranking.
Not true, the rope a dope was there LONG before Ali was fighting, Jake Lamotta, and Archie Moore was known for "Fighting off the ropes" as it was called before Ali renamed it. Also Ali had that plan down BEFORE the fight even started, as in training, he was having his sparing partners beat on Ali, as Ali was just lying on the ropes and taking it. He plan it. Train the plan and excuted the plan, non of this bs that the plan came, because Ali could not out box Foreman.
I don't believe in unrealized potential. We all realize the actual potential we possess. It is a self-evident truth.