Who is the most under rated heavyweight?

I'll go with Ernie Schaaf. Outside of sites like this one nobody remembers him and if they do it's only because he died fighting Carnera.
Ton of wins over legit contenders of his era, Paulino Uzcudun, Young Stribling, Tony Galento, Johnny Risko, a pair over Tommy Loughran.
Plus two wins over Lineal HW champs in Baer (1-1) and Braddock (1-0)
In addition he didn't draw the color line fighting and defeating guys like Dynamite Jackson and Unknown Winston.
Only stopped once in final bout where he went into fight sick.
From reading fight reports seems to have been a very good boxer, hard to hit clean.

 

Good shout!

 

The Majority thinks highly of Liston and is aware he is one of the greatest HWs of all time.
But of course there are a few who only know liston just as the slow fighter who Ali beat up twice.

 

Patterson, hands down is the most underrated heavyweight champion.

 

Lamon Brewster. Tyson Fury has been mentioned in this forum as a ATG for winning on
points the hw champion by beating a 40 + Klitschko. LB ko a decade younger WK in
5 rds and ko in 1rd a Golota who in last 2 fights had fought for a world title.
For some reason LB gets no credit for this.

 

McVea, Langford and Braddock come to mind.

 

Shout out to Joe Bugner.

Wasn't the best, toughest or most talented but he was a good fighter but was treated as a punch line to a joke for quite some time, unfairly in my view.

Went the distance twice with Ali, gave Frazier a war in a very good fight and was probably stiff to lose a split decision to Lyle. He did beat Henry Cooper (controversially) and cleaned up the better British/Euro level fighters of his era, before coming back at an advanced age and posting dull but solid wins over Tillis, Bey and Greg Page. Even his losses to Frank Bruno and Scott Welch weren't blow outs which considering his age at the times were an achievements in their self.

He was a decent, skilled fighter who fell short of the best by a combination of the unrealistic expectations of some and probably by his own psychological shortcomings.

 

Patterson and Tommy Burns for me. The people saying Jim Braddock need to ignore the movies and actually watch him fight and read about his career. He was simply not that good. Compelling story but not a great fighter.

 

I've never seen the movies

 

Zora Folley, Eddie Machen and Bob Baker. I loved these guys. They had all the tools but there was always something just keeping them from that top rung. Machen - politics (IBC), Folley - chin and politics (IBC), Baker - conditioning. But at any given time at their peak, these three could have found themselves fighting for the throne.

 

Agreed... Not sure that he was the "most" underrated but definitely under appreciated and a lot better than given credit for.

 

Cinderella man starring Russell Crow and Renee Zelwieger was a pretty good movie. Came out sometime back in 2005 I believe and was directed by Ron Howard. Not 100% accurate from what I'm told, but definitely a good watch. You might want to check it out.

 

Agreed, there's a reason Joe's management avoided Ron Lyle and Ernie Shavers. Walking straight in would have been very hazardous, not saying Joe wouldn't have beaten both. But styles make fights and those guys could hit!