What past HW would be the best Modern Cruiserweight

Does Holyfield count

 

Counting only those who fought at a cruiserweight weight throughout most of their prime I would go with Jack Dempsey and Rocky Marciano.

 

Louis, Patterson, Marciano, Frazier, theoretical/fantasy Tyson peaking at 198

Ali imo needed to be 200+ to have that underrated power he could reach for in the deepest water

 

Joe Louis

 

No sir, because you do not see that Ali could easily be his ideal/peak 210-215 because it will be the day before weigh in-losing up to 7% of his body weight in water & rehydrating-even without shedding any of his then limited body fat.

When he says "weigh in" it makes sense to assume what it has been for 1/2 of forever now, the day before. Meaning guys can enter the ring around their real life prime weights if it is less than 10% of what they weighed!

Ali would likely be #1.
Tyson weighed ~ 215-220 during his prime, & with more muscle (which is mostly water) than Ali he could lose the weight & rehydrate about as easy as Ali.
That is about the limit of what could be expected.
When you push 10% dehydration of body weight-especially if you have less muscle-it becomes questionable whether you can do it without losing significant energy.

This is a question I have posed here before.
Louis & Frazier & Usyk would be good candidates, the former 2 could likely make 190 without a problem with day before weigh ins.

 

Ali, Louis, Holmes, and Frazier would need to fight it out in an eliminator for the right to challenge Holyfield. Holyfield's chances of keeping a claim on GOAT cruiser depend on who wins the eliminator. If he ends up against Ali or Holmes, he's in trouble. If he ends up against Louis or Frazier, he may well keep his claim.

Dark horse is Usyk.

edit: I realized my post might not make sense. What I did here was use a time machine to pull them forward to the modern day, with Holyfield having been plucked at his cruiser best. The others are challengers.

 

He was arguably the greatest cruiser ever. Why on earth wouldn't he count? In this weird scenario, he's the lineal title holder.

 

Michael Spinks, Michael Moorer & Chris Byrd would be very good

 

Frazier and Walcott stand out to me as guys who would be perfectly suited to 200lbs.

 

Agreed, somewhere around 185 I would think.

 

Agree. An average cruiserweight does his ring walk around 215 or more. Even Walcott, Joe Louis, etc. would be a stretch. Under modern weigh in rules, Frazier could have probably made 175. If he was peeled and didn't carry any extra weight, he would probably be in the mid 190s. It would be a hell cut, but possible. That being said, I think he would look great as a low-mid sized Cruiser.