Top 50 HW's 1970-79.

I have been on a self-imposed mission to rate the Top 50 heavyweights by decade, 1880-2026. I am enjoying it and while I post some of them on-line, I don't expect or get much reaction. I get that too, as lists can be boring, and this list has a lot of caveats attached. I only include fights that take place in the decade when rating the boxers for that decade. I make some allowances for the early career fights and for end-of-career bouts. At the end of the exercise, I intend to compare the decades on a lot of levels. Criticism expected and welcomed and please point out any omissions if you notice any, anyway here is my results-based list;
Ali
Foreman
Frazier
Norton
Holmes
Young
Quarry
Lyle
Tate
Shavers

Coetzee
Bonavena
Bugner
Weaver
L.Spinks
Ellis
Patterson
H.Smith
Bobick
Ward

Ocasio
L.Jones
Garcia
Le Doux
Cooney
Neumann
Middleton
Knoetze
Clark
Evangelestia

Kirkman
Peralta
Boudreux
Terrell
Roman
Chuvalo
M.Foster
Liston
Zanon
Cooper

Schutte
Al Jones
Wepner
Mercado
Merritt
Denis
Al Lewis
Dokes
Bodell
Lopez

 

I think you may have missed the "I only include fights that take place in the decade when rating the boxers for that decade" bit from my long-winded intro, which especially affects Tate. Joe is right up there with his best wins in that period, Wepner, Ellis. Cooper, Garcia, Mac Foster, but a fair few defeats too, Middleton, Bodell, Ali, Frazier, and Lyle. Quarry defeated Mac Foster, Middleton, Lyle, Neumann, Shavers, with losses to Norton and Frazier. I'm comfortable with their respective placings for the decade.

 

First, I don't intend to go all defensive on Norton over Holmes, I flip-flopped on this, probably five times, when I looked at it. The rationale is that by the time Larry had his first significant win at this level, over Shavers(my number 10) in late 1978, Ken had already defeated Garcia,(23) Clark(29), Ali(1), Kirkman(31), Quarry(7), Middleton(27), Bobick(19), Zanon(39) and Young(6) all rated in the top 40 for the decade. Add in the two close fights with Ali and Larry had a big mountain to climb to surpass Norton. Their fight was a massive battle, nothing in it. I actually scored it by one round for Larry. Zanon(39), Evangelista(30) and Ocasio(21) were solid wins, the kind that Norton was amassing throughout the decade. The Loss to Shavers and Holmes' good win over Earnie(10) narrows the gap big time. Ken was finished by the decade's end but did claim a draw with my number 25-rated LeDoux. I went for longevity and resume over the much shorter but more perfect run of Holmes.

 

Yeah, I forgot to include Weaver (14) in my post, but I had him in my workings. I hear your argument, it's reasonable.

 

Thanks for the query. Probably, it is that despite its fabled depth, the 1970's heavyweights dropped off in class big time after that fantastic top ten. If you demote Gerrie, you have to replace him with?
Coetzee-undefeated with wins over Leon, Knoetze, Boudreaux and Schutte. Got great but solid and better than(marginally)
Bonavena-beat Al Lewis, Ramous, Middleton, lost to Patterson, Lyle...
Bugner-beat Cooper, M.Foster, Garcia, lost to Middleton, Bodell
Weaver- bt Mercado, Ward, LeDoux and lost to Holmes, Al Jones, Ward, Bobick
L.Spinks-the Ali win plus Righetti and the draw with LeDoux. lost to Ali and Coetzee.
Ellis-beat Doyle and Chuvalo but a slew of defeats to Lyle, Shavers, Kirkman plus Ali, Frazier
Patterson-beat Bonavena, lost to Ali.
H.Smith-beat Middleton, Weaver(debut) Clark, Boudreaux and lost to Shavers.
Bobick-beat Weaver, Neumann, Middleton, LeDoux, but lost to Chaplin, Tate, Knoetze, Nortonn
Ward-Merritt, M. Foster, Weaver, draw with Bourdeaux and losses to Stephens, Lyle, Weaver.
Ocasio-just the two wins over shop-worn Young.
It comes down to what you value in a record. I am never saying who is better than who, rather who had the best series of fights in a decade. I hope this clarifies his ranking somewhat.

 

Saintpat, I agree 100% regarding the artificial cut-off that a decade is. You are correct that there is an overall purpose to this folly. When I have completed the decades we can compare them in lots of ways, This is not about the individual fighters but about the eras. It still won't be scientific but will be a useful set of data to work with, An example would be comparing my number 10 rated fighter, 1880-1970.
10. Slavin McCoy McVea Kaufman Loughran Braddock T.Thompson Jackson Cl.Williams Shavers.
It is of course pretty difficult to compare Slavin with Shavers but easy to compare Shavers to Cleveland Williams or Slavin with McCoy. It would also be possible to compare the quality of fights within a decade, for example, how many top 50 fighters fought each other in that era, etc.

 

I get your point and even more so I agree with your take on the decades you mention. The late 40's suffered from the War , the late 1880s saw the increased benefit of the gloved era, the late 10's saw the emergence of that great cohort of black fighters, and so on. Funnily enough, you encounter the similiar issues doing a top 50 for any decade, the top ten pretty much fill itself, the next 10/15 clear cut enough but harder to list 11 to 25 and I find myself scrambling to fill the places 40 to 50. As an aside, I felt the top 10 for the 1890's were exceptional as were the 1970's with a clear separation from the rest of the top 50. Not sure if it denotes a lack of depth from 10 down or real class in the top 10!