Cause if we do a round robin, I think Liston does better. Plus, I have many others ahead of Ali, not just Liston.
Why isn't Tucker a slick heavyweight ? He isn't that slick but compared to guys like Joseph Parker or Ibrigamov he should qualify. Mavrovic was also a slickster against all his opponents before Lewis
Yes, but he is still a guy who is physically overmatched...outreached...outleveraged...outmuscled....
The questions was what big heavies did Wlad face? And that is the answer, or part of it. And Wlad had a way of turning really good fighters with a lot of potential into hype jobs.
This would be mine on a H2H and prime for prime sense. 1. Muhammad Ali - truly the greatest. 2. Mike Tyson/Riddick Bowe/Lennox Lewis 3. Foreman, Holyfield, Frazier, Usyk, Holmes 4. Wlad, Vitali, Fury, Norton, Joe Louis
He stopped them in their tracks, career wise and elsewise. He made Ibragimov and Haye (basically) retire. He took the O's of Pulev, Povetkin, Chagaev, Ibragimov, Brock, Peter... these guys were never the same.
I couldn't see them controlling the heavyweight division for 10 years. Everyone wants to focus on pre-prime Wlad, or late stage Wlad but we have TEN LONG YEARS of PRIME Wlad where he barely lost a round fighting the best (except his bro) the division had to offer. Dempsey didn't have ten good years. Marciano didn't have ten good years. Holmes didn't have ten good years. Liston didn't have ten good years. Tyson didn't have ten good years. Frazier didn't have ten good years. Apply the same measure to your champions. Wlad is closer to being the GOAT than to being #10 in the division's history.