Where does JL Sullivan rank as a HW ATG

I suspect this one might be where my opinion is most divergent from the polled results. I never see him mentioned much. Been too long, and the "legend" has died down. All the negatives first: never beat an ATG, almost comically unprofessional "reign", against an almost comically bad talent pool, virtually impossible to imagine him as anything better than a fringe contender among cruiserweights today.

All that said, without him, we may not be on this blog today, its quite possible boxing never develops without him. He was often regarded as the first "sports superstar" in America. He brought an interest and credibility to boxing and sports in general that has lasted much longer than his name. He was regarded as the first HW boxing champion of the world. For all those reasons, he'll always have a place in my top 10 HW ATG's.

 

Most likely yes, I was being generous. But modern fringe contender in cruiserweight for Sullivan is no more unrealistic than dominant HW champ for Ali in modern era, and that's a popular opinion. But this isn't about H2H, its overall ranking, and Sullivan's impact on the sport is undeniable.

 

See reply to Slavic, this isn't about H2H, or the rankings would be exclusively populated with HW's from the last 30 years.