Which Heavyweight Champion benefited most from weak competition?

I dont think Jeffries is in the running. He fought Fitzsimmons, Sharkey and Corbett inside the same year and they were probably the three best challengers around.

Dempsey missed some top challengers but his title opponents were all prety solid contenders.

Louis's activity combined with the ranking of his opponents should buy him off the list.

 

Liston
Jack Johnson (at least those he chose to fight)
Jim Jeffries

 

correct answer

 

atsch at Liston. The guy is 2-2 in Championship fights against Patterson and Ali. How in the hell did he benefit from weak competition?

My vote goes to Evander Holyfield in his first reign, guy had considerable trouble finding credible competition until the Bowe loss. Douglas was a disinterested and grossly out of shape Champion, old man Foreman was demanded by the public despite not being a credible challenger, journeyman Cooper had to fill in for Tyson, and promising Olympian contender Mercer was exposed by old Holmes, forcing Evander's hand. Very bad luck for a fighter making an effort to establish himself as the heir apparent.

 

Patterson was a very good LHW but he lacked the mass to compete at HW , a fact Liston and Ali enjoyed to exploit.
And just look at the rest of Liston's opposition.
Quite bad. And again , I do not blame him for ducking anyone but his opposition was severely lacking. Ali was the end of his reign , not exactly part of it.

 

Which Heavyweight Champion in your opinion. benefited the most by weak competition. Having had at least 8 to 10 defenses. or reigned at least three to four years.

I'll admit my pick of Holyfield is a bit of a stretch having reigned just short of 3 years but I feel it was interesting enough to deserve mention.

But Liston had just ONE DEFENSE!!! He doesn't even qualify for this discussion by the biggest of stretches, no need to bring him up for the sake of pointless bashing.

And Listion has an excellent resume as a contender at any rate, not bad by any means. :rofl

 

Just a weak era. These guys wouldn't last more than a couple rounds against Louis. Then again, neither would Jeffries.

 

So far we have had

Joe Louis
Jack Dempsey
Jim Jeffries
Floyd Patterson
Evander Holyfield
Sonny Liston
Larry Holmes
Wladimir Klitschko
Mike Tyson
Vitali Klitschko
John L. Sullivan
Tommy Burns

mentioned. Surprised that Ali's first reign with London, Cooper, Mildenberger, Chuvalo and aging Folley & Williams hasn't been picked yet.

Perhaps a better question would be to ask who fought strong competition during their reign?

 

The only thing you can do is to beat those that are around to beat. Louis left no stone unturned pre-war (but maybe after the war), Marciano fought what there was, perhaps with Valdes as only exception, Ali's first reign isn't really missing any names and Tyson cleaned house with the possible exceptions of 'Spoon and Dokes.

 

Liston is not relevent to the thread topic... The person who posted it asked for champions that had 8-10 title defenses and reigned for perhaps 3 or 4 years. A man who only won two title fights and against an all time great like Patterson, cannot be listed as benefitting THE MOST from weak opposition.. It wasn't like he reigned for 4 years and held the title hostage by padding his record with mediocrities... He took the crown from an all time great, then immediately lost it to an all time great... That by definition, is not taking advantage of weak opponents.

 

If some of these guys are picked, Lennox Lewis is not much, if any, better.

 

When Joe Louis was champion, most experts would have rated Corbett and Fitzsimmons a couple of notches above the guys that he was fighting.

I think that however you judge the fighters of Jeffries era relative to others, you have to recognise that it was a highly competitive era with a lot of talent around. You had all time greats fighting other all time greats.

That is not a weak era.

 

Holmes and Tyson both faced good competition. Just because Holmes didn't face *every* contender doesn't mean his opposition wasn't strong. And Tyson's opposition was respectable too, he only really ducked Foreman and that was more Don King's work, Tyson would have won easily.

 

this

 

Well I don't know about 8 title defenses as a fair barometer, but Jack Johnson is the pick. As champion his competition was rather weak, and he clearly avoided the 3-4 best fighters out there.