What does a modern heavyweight in 2017 and beyond need to do to achieve greatness?

AJ isn't far off - He's already beaten the lineal champ in Wlad (sorry but Fury's win over Wlad is null and void after the drug tests, the guy's a cheat). IMO if he can get past Takam then wins over Wilder, Parker, Ortiz and possibly Fury if he can comeback and stay clean would put AJ in contention for being a modern HW great.

 

Johnson had 9 defences in 6 years, 8 of them successful. Jeffries had 8 defences in5 years so why did you single out Johnson?

As if we didn't know already!

 

"Greatness" is an opinion, not a fact. Some people here get out of bed every day and post here
about how "great" a guy was and another guy says no he wasn't!

A common theme in many of the above posts state that to be considered "great" a HW has to fight more often.
I'd say "to be remembered" a guy has to 1) fight more often than once a year and 2) fight the best guys that
he can fight, or guys ranked highly by his organization, 3) stay champ for a least several (3-4) years.

Does anyone remember Trever Berbick for anything other than his chicken dance with Mike Tyson? Nope, because he was a HW champ that never successfully defended his title. Pinklon Thomas successfully defended his title twice against some pretty tough guys....Witherspoon and Weaver...over a 1 1/2 yr time period but he's not considered great nor much remembered.

So a boxer needs to exceed Berbick and Thomas' records. Again, fight more than once a year, fight the best out there, and stay champ for at least 3-4 years.

 

Panic mode? I'm sitting here having a cup of tea. Why didn't you just entitle it," Another Johnson Bashing Thread"? Why go through all the phoney BS? You couldn't counter punch a cheese roll you muppet! Got those Siler fights?lol

 

I don't recall anyone thinking Larry Holmes was a bum. The press were all completely behind him. Sure, the public missed Ali's charisma, but that's understandable.

 

1 Being the fist to unify all four main belts, plus the ring magazine.

2 Beat Joe Louis's record.

3 Beat top names of the time and retire undefeated.

4 be the first champion to retire with a 100% KO rate.

5 be the first to unify the cruiserweight and then go on to unify the heavyweight division.

 

Depends from where the heavyweight comes from, if their is a big media base, and fan base the recognition comes easier. British and American fighters will probably be more accepted than if the fighter is some Eastern Euro with a hard to prounounce name. Interest is a big part of how a fighter is viewed when it comes to heavyweights. Take Wlad, his brother ruptured his knee in 2004, from 04-15 Wlad was the most dominant heavyweight in the world. Did he duck anyone? No. Was he classy? Yes. Did he have the second longest reign ever? Yes. Did people care? No. Some will say because his fights were boring and I would agree that is partially true but I also believe American audiences just don't tune in for some of these guys and that is a bias against them. By all accounts Wlad should be a lock top 10 heavy. Some ppl give him his due but some ppl still try to claim he is more top 15ish. Had he been an American I don't think that latter argument would be made.

As for going forward to be a hall of fame fighter at heavyweight - not all time top 10 great just a hall of fame heavyweight. Win a belt, unify, and then defend the title against the best opposition all you can do. If you can beat 8-9 top 10 ranked contenders(ring rated) as champion I think that should get the job done. It's not an exact science.
Would be nice if more contenders mixed it up and took risks that's what really hurting the division today. Everyone wants the cash out vs the champ. Need to get more money circulating in the division to entice top contenders to square off. It will build more excitement then when the champ defends against the winner.

 

He has to be 6"2 and weigh in at 200-225 tops. Also have an iron chin, high KO ratio and beat every opponent he has faced at least once. Also he has to edging out close slugfests against top competition with great resumes.

Edit: Has to be american.

 

If Tyson Fury did actually somehow come back and beat one or two of the top fighters (ie. the men ranked #1 and #2, for example) he would absolutely be regarded as a great heavyweight.
I can't see it happening but IF he could do that after a long lay-off and having done ballooning towards 400 pounds as he has, he'd have to be regarded on another level to the rest of the era.
It's nigh on impossible and that's IF he even attempts it.

 

Filip has the right mindset

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Basically what Dubbelchin said.

Beat everybody, beat them in style and last a long time at the top.

If the fighter in question has outstanding attributes in some way eg speed (Ali) power (AJ) technical ability (Wlad) or chin (Foreman) this all helps cement him as special in some way.

Fighting often is also a good way, along with beating all the top guys, to grasp greatness. Louis with his so called Bum of the Month Club and Tyson with his multitudinous wins early in his career helped generate momentum behind their claims to greatness. It's hard to argue witha long resume as well as a good one.

 

Very interesting read.