The usual applies, just fights during the decade count, nothing else, other decade fights, style, H2H, hunches, talent, all no no's. Comments, criticism, opinions, mistakes, omissions, etc. are all welcome. 1 Lewis 2 Holyfield 3 Bowe 4 Tyson 5 Moorer 6 Douglas 7 Mccall 8 Bruno 9 Foreman 10 Holmes 11 Tua 12 Mercer 13 Ibeabuchi 14 Grant 15 Akinwanda 16 Golota 17 Morrison 18 Hunter 19 Nielson 20 Maskaev 21 Seldon 22 Hide 23 Byrd 24 Rahman 25 Norris 26 Donald 27 Zolkin 28 Witherspoon 29 Ruddock 30 Tucker 31 Izon 32 Savarese 33 J.Williams 34 Botha 35 Schulz 36 Briggs 37 K.Johnson 38 Sanders 39 Mathis 40 Purrity 41 Bentt 42 Butler 43 Hipp 44 Damiani 45 Gonzales 46 Ruiz 47 C.Williams 48 Cooper 49 V.Klitscho 50 Thunder
I have Botha 8th or 9th for the 90s. You have him 34th. He was a champ and he fought everyone. Does doing good in losses count?
I admit I have a lot of reservations, but perhaps I didn't fully understand the criteria. Ike scored two ATG victories at the end of the decade. Tua and Byrd were clearly better than anyone Bruno, Mercer, or Foreman beat, and unlike them, he didn't lose to Ferguson or Morrison. Ike is definitely a top-5 fighter of the decade for me. I'll never understand how anyone could rank Lewis above Bowe or Holyfield in the 1990s. He only defeated Evander in 1999, at the very end of the decade, and those victories were absolutely unimpressive, especially the latter. According to The Ring, Holyfield was the leader in this category for five seasons, Lewis for only one. Bowe was the leader for two, but in the most dominant fashion. He also holds arguably the most impressive and valuable victories over Holyfield, rivaled only by Holyfield's defeats of Tyson and Moorer. Both men fought the best trilogy of the decade, yet they are behind Lewis, who was knocked out by McCall, couldn't beat Mercer, and fought tough battles with Bruno and Mavrovitz. To me, this is incomprehensible.
I would put Moorer above Tyson based on the fact that he actually was the lineal champion and beat Holyfield for the title. Tua also should be above Holmes imo.
Ring rated Lewis over Holy in four of the nine years that they were both rated, not that I'm that obsessed with their ratings. Lewis' list of wins in the 90's is one of the most impressive of any fighter in a decade; Ocasio, Mason, Weaver, Ruddock, Tucker, Jackson, Mercer, McCall, Morrison, Bruno, Akinwande, Golota, Briggs, Mavrovic, and Holyfield. He lost to McCall(avenged) and only Mercer and Holy pushed him close. Holyfield, too had a great decade but lost four times. He beat Douglas, Holmes, Foreman, Tyson twice, Bowe, Moorer, Mercer so I can fully understand somebody going for him but I can't understand how one could not also see Lewis as the possible number one. Bowe, too had a good decade, he proved Holy's master, and had good wins over Thomas, Biggs, Seldon, Dokes, Hide, Donald, Gonzales but the Golota fights hurts him and also the longevity of the other two, three great fighters but I'm comfortable with my choices.
I assume Hunter is Mike (The Bounty) …. Having difficulty seeing him as top 20 material in the decade. Serious how you arrived at that @mattdonnellon. How did you land him there?
Beginning to wonder myself! Some nifty wins early in the decade before drugs knocked him out, Qawi, Ocasio, Biggs, Thomas, Thunder, the Zolkin fights, Botha, and Mathis too. Probably a bit too high but the fellas behind him did not really outperform him either.
Final list, just a few changes, bumped Tua over Foreman and Holmes and rose Botha a few places; 1 Lewis 2 Holyfield 3 Bowe 4 Tyson 5 Moorer 6 Douglas 7 Mccall 8 Bruno 9 Tua 10 Foreman 11 Holmes 12 Mercer 13 Ibeabuchi 14 Grant 15 Akinwanda 16 Golota 17 Morrison 18 Hunter 19 Nielson 20 Maskaev 21 Seldon 22 Hide 23 Byrd 24 Rahman 25 Norris 26 Donald 27 Zolkin 28 Witherspoon 29 Ruddock 30 Tucker 31 Botha 32 Izon 33 Savarese 34 J.Williams 35 Schulz 36 Briggs 37 K.Johnson 38 Sanders 39 Mathis 40 Purrity 41 Bentt 42 Butler 43 Hipp 44 Damiani 45 Gonzales 46 Ruiz 47 C.Williams 48 Cooper 49 V.Klitscho 50 Thunder
Bert Cooper beat Orlin Norris, and, gave Mercer, Moorer, and Holyfield hell in the 90s. He also beat the brakes off of Joe Hipp. He likely would have done the same to a guy like Bruce Seldon if given the opportunity. I would place him much higher than 48th.
It is reasonable move move any of the bottom 40-50 fighters up or down ten places, they mostly have a load of decent wins and bad losses. Bert certainly had a higher ceiling than most but was aging towards the second half of the decade. He was also terribly inconsistent. IMO, he had just two good wins in this timeframe, as you pointed out, Hipp, my 43rd and Norris, 25th. He had 14 defeats, Moorer,5, Holy, 2, Bowe, 3 and Mercer, 12, all perfectably acceptable, but also Jeremy Williams, 34, Donald, 26, Sanders, 38, Byrd, 23 and Zolkin, 27. Then he had losses to unrated Green, Oquendo, Jefferson, Po'hua, and Weaver , As I say, a tad higher, maybe.
Foreman needs to be higher. There are some other placements i disagree with but that one sticks out for me
Here my thoughts ont he oringal list, the bolded parts are for emphasis: 1. McCall did enough outside of the Lewis fight to be ahead of Douglas 2. I would move Tua's resume all the way up to 8. He had a nice set of wins in the 90s and the Ike fight only helps his standing. 3. Seldon was a champion who beat Tucker and defended against Hipp, plus beat a lot of known but past it fighters. He should at least trade places with Nielson. Nielson is too high. 4. Rahman is too low. He was a legitimate top ten contender in the late 90s in a way that Nielson and Hunter never were. He was winning in the late rounds against Tua and Maskaev, the loss to Tua being influenced by a foul. 5. Witherspoon is too low. He destroyed JLG when it still mattered and almost beat Mercer. 6. Ruddock is criminally low. He destroyed Dokes, who was still a highly regarded contender, had two wars with Tyson, and followed it up by destroying an undefeated Phil Jackson. It's better than what Frank Bruno did, to put it bluntly. 7. Corrie Sanders had a better 90s than Zolkin. He should be higher. 8. Purrity beat Wlad Klitschko. Not sure what more he needs to do to be ahead of someone like Jeremy Williams or Brian Nielson. 9. Maurice Harris did more than enough to be the forties, and Derrick Jefferson was a hot fighter who cracked the top ten in 99. Gonzales wishes he had the win column of either.