Top 5 Best Heavyweights of The '90s

In your opinion, who were the top 5 heavyweights of the 90s? Here is my list and why...

1) Lennox Lewis: Cleaned out the division, last man left standing. Unified the heavyweight championship in 1999. Beat current WBC title holder Vitali Klitschko before retiring. Also defeated everyone of major significance during the decade, including Razor Ruddock (in two rounds) Andrew Golota (in one round) Michael Grant (in two rounds) Ray Mercer, David Tua, Tommy Morrison, Frank Bruno, Shannon Briggs, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Oliver McCall, Hasim Rahman, etc. Only suffered two losses. Definitely the best of the 90s breed.

2) Evander Holyfield: Was a three-time heavyweight champ during the decade. Defeated George Foreman, Michael Moorer, Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes, Riddick Bowe, Ray Mercer and others. He was inconsistent during his career but his toughness showed that he was one of the best.

3) David Tua: Didn't win a belt, but only suffered one loss during the decade. (A close war with Ibeabuchi) Knocked out four former heavyweight champions.

4) George Foreman: This old jolly fat man was still knocking fools out with no problem, even winning the lineal heavyweight championship from the much younger Michael Moorer. He finished his comeback career with a record of 31-3, although it should have been 31-2. (If you saw the Foreman-Briggs bout, you know what I'm talking about).

5) Mike Tyson: His best wins were over Razor Ruddock in 1991. After prison, he picked up two belts but they were against a terrified Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon. He was far from the great heavyweight he was in the 80s but was still good, especially against the novice bums Don King put him in the ring against. (Peter McNeely, Henry Tillman, Buster Mathis Jr, etc)

Yes, I omitted Riddick Bowe. I think he's overrated. He looked great in one fight against Evander Holyfield, and that was in part to Holyfield playing into Riddick's hands and turning it into a slugfest. Riddick would lose to Holyfield if Holyfield fought a smart fight (as he did in the rematch) and keep in mind also that Andrew Golota should have beaten Bowe on two occasions. Bowe also blatantly ducked Lennox Lewis and split up the heavyweight titles. Because of all this, I'd put Ray Mercer or Tommy Morrison at #6 before Riddick Bowe.

 

Well you could certainly make a case for a few men.

Tua was 35-1 in the 90s with his only loss coming against Ike, who was an absolute beast and the fact he KOed 30 of those opponents he faced. However the downside obviously being he didn't have that many notable wins aside from Ruiz, Rahman and Maskaev.

Ike himself with a huge win over an undefeated Tua and an undefeated Byrd. It should be noted David was only 226 pounds for this fight, so it's not like this was a fat and out of shape Tua. Obviously it's tough to put him no.4 unless we're talking H2H because he did virtually nothing apart from them two huge wins.

Moorer although KOed by big George still had a nice little resume to take out of the 90s. A close win over Holyfield (who was struggling with heart issues) but still an incredibly good win. Add that on to his Victories over Cooper, Schulz and Botha then you have quite a few wins that together are good enough for at least a top 6 spot IMO. It's a shame Holyfield beat the **** out of him in the rematch, because it certainly makes you question if he'd of done the same had he been 100% in the first fight.

Tyson's list of wins in the 90s where incredibly thin, but it's not like that many people had a better selection of wins. Seldon, Bruno, Botha, Buster Mathis Jr and Alex Stewart are all nice resume fillers, with Ruddock x2 being his standout wins in the 90s. Despite the loses to Holyfield x2 and Douglas he still had an ok 90s. Just nowhere near compared to how he did in the 80s

1 man that is not plausible is Golota. Apart from his 2 performances against a past it Bowe, did virtually nothing in the 90s apart from beat bums and quit on his stool against Michael Grant and get KTFO by Lewis. Grant going undefeated in the 90s has a better claim to be their instead of Golota.

Personally my order would be.

1. Lennox Lewis
2. Evander Holyfield
3. Riddick Bowe
4. Mike Tyson
5. Michael Moorer
6. Ike Ibeabuchi
7. George Foreman
8. Oliver McCall
9. David Tua
10. Tommy Morrison.

 

David Tua shouldn't be on the list. He never won a belt.