Top 50 Heavyweights 1930-1960

Walcott was at his peak when Maxim beat him. Both Edward and I had maxim winning the fight on our scorecards, and a lot of others had the same result. Floyd admitted Maxim deserved the decision

A win over a 1954 Floyd Patterson is less meaningful than a win over a 1947 Max Schmeling? I don't think you will find one person who agrees with you here. For 1, Patterson was rated top 10 in the world and beat top 10 heavyweight jimmy slade that year, while schmeling was a 42 year old shot fighter reduced to fighting in club circuits against tomato cans and losing to Richard Vogt.

Joey Maxim won 5 fights against men who fought for the world heavyweight title, and he beat ATG Walcott and future ATG Patterson. This is enough to make the list. We stand by our Maxim pick but might consider moving him down a few places in the future.

 

Bivins was the duration heavyweight champion from 1943-1945 and would continue to be a top 10 rated heavyweight in the world all the way up to 1952. After 1943, Bivins never weighed in below the light heavyweight limit again. This quantifies him as a full fledged heavyweight.

Charles was # 2 heavyweight in the world when johnson beat him, and Charles still had enough in him to reclaim the # 1 rating in the world a year later in 1954, and give a prime rocky marciano one of his closest fights of his career. This is a very meaningful heavyweight win.

Machen came in really high on our list. He was a very consistent top notch fighter with no bad losses. Johnson deserves huge credit here.

After Johnson beat Valdes, Valdes would go on to become the number 1 heavyweight contender in the world from 1953-1955. This is a big win.

 

We consider 19 year old Patterson a better fighter than 42 year old Schmeling coming off a 9 year layoff

 

I don’t know how else we can explain this. Schmeling was 42 years old. He took a 9 year layoff from 1939-1947. When he came back, he was clearly a shot fighter. Two wins over club fighters doesn’t quantify as a “tuneup” to get him back to world class status. When he fought better opponents, Neusal and Vogt, he lost. Vogt never cracked the top 10 in his career. Schmeling easily beat Neusal when both men were in their prime.


I doubt there was a top 50 heavyweight in the world in 1947 Schmeling could have beaten. In contrast, a 19 year old Patterson defeated number 7 ranked heavyweight Jimmy slade the same year he fought maxim. Schmeling was losing to men like Vogt in 1947. 19 year old Patterson was a much better fighter than Vogt.

 

Ray came in at number 10 while Mauriello came in at number 50. Would love to hear from Janitor, Mcvey, and Scar Tissue who believe Mauriello was equal to Ray while Edward and I believe Ray was a staggering 40 places higher than Mauriello.

It should be noted we also ranked Lastarza above Mauriello at number 49, and Janitor considers Mauriello "5x better" than Lastarza

Please start your arguments and we will defend our case