That's a good list of names but wlad is above tyson and there's really no argument that can be made. Also Lewis to me is top 3. Marciano, top 3 ??? Truthfully, id have him top 10 just for the (fabricated) record. Mostly for him not being ktfo a bunch of times. Its really too hard to do all time, because everyone's legend keeps growing. Longer you're retired the better you somehow were
What alt account is this? Gee? Dino? Wrecking machine that couldn't put away Bert Cooper and got outpointed by a fat 42 year old? Mercer was a wrecking machine at Taco Bell and Wendy's, not in the ring. As for explaining Perez's loss, just shut up. He'd fought Bryant Jennings to a virtual stalemate in his previous fight. That Jennings is on par with 92 Mercer any day of the week.
So what if he couldn't put away Cooper? He was just 15-0 at the time. Which is worse - Wlad being unable to stop and losing to Purrity at 24-0 Or Mercer coming through a tough battle against Cooper at just 15-0? A wrecking machine that blew away Morrison and gave prime version of Lewis and Holyfield hell. You'd see that if you watched him. Jennings is one of the weakest guys in the division. Basic skills. Zero amateur pedigree. Poor technique. No power . Bad foot work. Old Foreman , Morrison and Mercer would destroy Jennings. Ortiz ran him down easily.
Easily in the top 10. Holmes was a ****ing bad dude in his day. And when you want to see what a badass jab looks like, just watch Larry. It was mean.
Only Ali and Louis were greater. He would have won that belt from McCall if he'd avoided that one punch in the ninth round. Best HW jab, sweet combinations, a fight-ruining right uppercut (his only power punch), great and wisely economical footwork back in the day, took Shavers's best shot flush and came back to beat him silly, made a prime Cooney look lame. For five years of his reign he seemed unbeatable...
He has to many title defenses not to be included,its the major criteria for considering ATG status and reaching that number automatically puts him in what should really be top 5 / 6 . People saying he lost this and that fight really need to start scoring every punch and what lands ,he only lost the Spinks first fight going in with a injury the doctors warned him about so he held back.
The second Spinks fight to me was one of the worse ripoffs ever in boxing imo. Holmes deserved that belt back.
Holmes ranks top 10 for sure. There is only 1 man in history to this date that could have knocked out Larry Holmes and he did. History played out how it should.
Should Deontay Wilder succssfully defend his WBC title for the ninth time this weekend, I believe only Joe Louis, Wlad Klitschko, Larry Holmes, Muhammad Ali, Vitali Klitschko and Lennox Lewis will have MORE successful defenses than Wilder, and most of them (Wlad, Vitali, Ali and Lewis) took more than one reign to accumulate that many.
I'm not just praising Tyson here. Young Mike Tyson was an impeccable force, there are few boxers that wouldn't get knocked out versus a young Mike Tyson. Plenty who fought Larry Holmes were capable of knocking him out, but Holmes skills said overwise. A 42 year old Holmes was even skilled enough to play around with a prime Mercer.
He floored Fury twice and was only awarded a draw. Draws are successful title defenses. Ask Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield. Ninth defense coming up. Meanwhile, Fury is trying to arrange a WBC "Silver" belt fight on social media.
