So Fury was lineal champ for around 8 years or so (I'm counting him as still champ from Wlad thru to Usyk) Question is, where do you place him along side other long term champs such as Ali,Louis, Holmes,Wlad?
Way lower. 8 years is impressive for sure, but he was inactive for a few of them and didn't defend the title as many times as you'd expect for such a long "reign".
He really isn't though. He's pretty far away from being the worst lineal champ at HW, let alone in all of boxing history. Jess Willard, Primo Carnera, Leon Spinks, Hasim Rahman, and Marvin Hart are worse than Fury, let alone the Sonny Boy Jaros of the world.
Fury had talent, sure. And i have always been a fan of his talent. But Fury's fans and Usyk's fans by extension are grossly overrating Fury. Fury has a paper thin resume. Missed fighting Joshua, Parker, Povetkin, Kabayel, Joyce, Zhang, Hrgovic, Dubois etc. Sure, you can't expect him to fight ALL of these guys but you would expect him to fight many of them. Fury struggled vs Wallin and Nnganou. So its very clear that lesser fighters could upset him. As to where i rank him, certainly not in the same stratosphere as Ali. Ali went 5-1 vs Foreman, Liston and Frazier which alone is greater than Fury's entire resume put together. Look at the other guys Ali fought: Shavers, Lyle, Norton, Quarry, Bonavena, Terrell etc. Just a who's who of every possible opponent. You can't rank as an ATG if you missed out fighting the majority of your top opponents. Given how close Fury came to losing vs Nnganou and Wallin, how do we know he would have remained "lineal" for 8 years if he fought a Zhang when Zhang was coming off ko'ing Joyce or Joyce when Joyce beat Parker? To answer the OP's question, i do not rank him as an all time top 15 heavyweight. Even top 20 is pushing it. He has 4 or 5 good/very good wins and lacks depth beyond that. He deserves credit for his size and speed and movement for someone that big. And he deserves credit for ending Wlad's boring reign. But Fury cannot be ranked as an all time top 15 heavyweight on any reasonable list. Talent and result are two different things. He ranks outside top 20 for me.
One other issue is that Fury built his entire image on being undefeated. This made him wary of fighting guys who could potentially upset him unless he had to. Fury probably could have beaten Zhang when Zhang was red hot or Joyce when Joyce was destroying guys. But because there was a risk of losing, he choose not to risk it. I do not care about the undefeated thing. Usyk isn't great because he is undefeated. He is great because he has chosen to go for all the belts regardless of who is in his way. If Usyk had to fight an average of 4 times a year like many great champions of the past, he would have less time to prepare and study for every individual opponent, less physical and mental recovery time in between fights, and a higher chance of having an off night and losing to a lesser opponent. This is why i do not put much credence into the unbeaten thing. I do rank Usyk as a top 15 all time heavyweight, possibly sneaking into the top 10 due to how capable he is and how he has clearly established himself as the #1 of his era. But when you are fighting a total of 2 times a year with ample time to rest, recover and study each opponent in tremendous detail, you can go unbeaten. You can't really do that if you are fighting very frequently vs high caliber opponents. Usyk is a good example to follow though. You never hear him bragging about being unbeaten. Dude fights anyone who has a belt.
