Which heavyweight champions fought the best fighter on the planet most often.

Frank has a quite frankly bizarre obsession with Patterson. I genuinely don’t think he can help it.

 

Why Vitaly as nr 1? I think he was ranked nr 7 by The Ring or some such.

 

Being of a certain age,I probably misunderstood this,but two questions. Were Galento and Walcott[1,] actually both number 1 when Louis defended against them? I know they subsequently got that position.

 

Well the thread asks for best fighter on the planet, and Ali clearly wasn’t the best fighter on the planet at that point.

 

Checking the ring Magazine 1939 Galento was ranked no.1 and so was Walcott in 1947.
Walcott being the outstanding contender was what got him the title shot at Louis as Louis' management preferred a fight with Baksi, according to contemporary newspapers I've read.

Galento defeated Nathan Mann in 1938 and in 1939 he defeated Natie Brown and Lou Nova and he also fought Louis within that year.

Bob Pastor was only ranked as high as no.2 during his career though (1939).

Edit: Louis fought Bob Pastor right after defeating the no.1 Galento, and since Pastor was ranked right below him, he fits the criteria for Louis facing the best fighter in the planet.

 

IDK, how accurate your list is. What I do know is The Rock only had 6 title defences, and in all of them he fought #1 ranked opponent w/ one exception and I don't recall who it was at this point, but the only time he fought a #2 was when #2 beat #1 before the fight.

 

It depends on if the fighter was number 1 when they were fought or guys who acheived this status at SOME point. If its the former its close and comes down to who you consider the number 1 contender at a given time. If its the latter Louis wins hands down. Ali and maybe Wlad might have more clear cut number 1s than Louis but I think Louis wins a more nuanced comparison.

A paradox here is that a clear cut number 1 contender really only becomes clear cut if the champ doesn't fight them for a long time. If a champ is consistantly fighting the top guys there won't be a consistant number 1 contender because they don't have time to establish themselves as such. Because of this I'm inclined to favor Louis even if Ali letting Terrell or Frazier establish a status of anysort was not his fault.

Heres some notes about Louis's opponents

1)Louis beat Max Baer coming off the close loss to Braddock but where I guess we'd consider Braddock the best fighter

2)Farr and Schmeling had something akin to alphabet status when Louis beat them due to Braddocks inactivity.

3)Given the 12 and 15 round totals following the 1938 congress I suspect there was a pseudo "white" title lineage during Louis's reign. Louis beat every man who might have held this status(I think it was Max Baer, Farr, Galento, Nova, Savold and Conn) but I don't think he was beating most of them at the exact same time they would have had this status.

4)John Henry Lewis had a lineal HW case when Louis fought him based on the Braddock robbery and his subsequent HW run. Starting in 1937 as Braddocks inactivity started to mount 4 of his HW fights were made for 15 rounds though there are no sources crediting him with a title like Farr or Schmeling.

5)Louis beat Savold when he was BBBC champ but did anyone consider him the best fighter in the world? This is a guy the New York Times was making fun of for losing most of his big fights though I think they were making fun of him years earlier.

6)Louis beat Bivins but years after he was duration double champ.

7)Godoy almost beat Louis should we consider him the best contender post ex facto? What about Buddy Baer for doing well etc?

Notes on other possibilities.

If not for Willsgate I'd actually have Dempsey in this conversation. He fought possibly the top guy 2-3 times before becoming champ due to WW1. Fulton, Miske and Brennan and he might have fought the top contender in every single title fight? Didn't fight Wills but did unify Wills lineage by beating Sharkey.

Jeffries and Marciano it depends on how you feel about repeat fights against former champs they already beat. And whether you consider those repeat opponents the best other HW in the world. Marciano I don't think is in this convo either way tbh. You can only make an argument for Jeffries this way in part because Jeffries was fighting the top fighters a few matches before he retired.

Lennox has a good 6 or 7 fights you could say he was fighting the top HW. Briggs(lineal champ), Golota, Holyfieldx2, Grant, Tyson, Vitali.

Like Wlad, Holmes and Tyson can get in this discussion if we truly ignore how you feel about whose got a case to be number 1 and take this question purely at face value.

If you want to be cute about it Usyk or Corbett would be the answers to this question because they had so few fights they were fighting a top guy the most often.