Who is the most underrated heavyweight Champion between 1920-1970?

It might if you were starched by the same guy twice, and you had previously beaten a lot of the people ranked under him.

 

From 1966 till 1972 Patterson beat one rated fighter ,Bonavena.

 

Floyd pushed Quarry and Ellis so close that there is an argument that all three were about the same level ....yet Jimmy owned half the title! Patterson was a better regarded contender during that period than Sonny Liston ever was during that period. Imagine that?

 

If they could have persuaded someone to promote that fight who would your money be on?

Floyd had a good run after he lost the title, being a lot less selective than D'Amato had been ,but his last ranking flatters him.

 

Patterson had not won a fight in over 2 years. In 1961 he beat Johansson and McNeeley, neither were in the end of '63 top 10.
The only guy in that top 10 that Patterson had beat was #10 Brian London, another generous ranking.

I think rankings need to be based at least on current/recent form. As of the end of 1963, Patterson had none to speak of.

 

I agree Liston should always start Favorite over Patterson simply because out of two attempts Floyd never performed at all against Sonny. However, I feel Floyd was better than he looked losing to Liston, that is for sure. For example Floyd was always better than Leotis Martin and would have started favourite over Martin at any stage of his career and would have won.

I am not sure Floyd's last ranking was that bad during that time. I have not checked but I'm assuming the guys behind Floyd that year (Terrell, Roman, bugner, Norton and garcia) had not done anything much by 1972. Bugner ahead of Norton tells me Ken was still unknown. Beating Bonavena who was a recent chalenger was a better and more recent scalp than any of those guys had.

If beating George Chuvalo was all George Foreman had to do to maintain a top three rating for 29 months I don't see why beating Bonavenna deserves Floyd being put behind Jose Roman and co.

 

I saw Martin in a terrific fight against Thad Spencer at the RAH in London, Make no mistake that Martin would have beat the older Floyd.

 

I remember they used to call that the greatest heavyweight fight ever to take place on this island.
Probably still is.

Unfilmed as far as I know.

 

If you don’t think that the criteria on which the rankings are calculated are fair, then that is a different argument. The fact is that everybody’s ranking is calculated on the same criteria, and this is where Patterson ended up. A defeated champion can be hard to shift in the rankings, especially if they have beaten a lot of the guys ranked beneath them.

 

I would have thought the second LKO1 with no wins in 24 months was enough to push him out. Not that it really matters, with only one champion the guys ranked #6 and #7 or #10 shouldn't be getting shots anyway. So to be fair, Patterson's ranking is more an incentive for other guys to use him as a stepping-stone, for better or worse. But that's said with the hindsight of knowing that he did prove to have something left. At the time I think I would have rated him with Jeffries and Johnson and other deceased champions.

 

I heard that was a great fight. However, Martin lost to bonnavena where as old Floyd beat Oscar. Also, Jimmy Ellis knocked out Martin where as old Floyd took ellis prety close, broke his nose and some say Floyd got robbed in a close fight with Ellis.

No doubt Martin was a handfull but against common opponents old Floyd looks better even on paper.

I met Martin and Spencer when as old men they were invited to England for some anniversary of that fight. One of them wore a cowboy hat. I think it was at the calzaghe v robin Reid fight.

 

I think Leotis Martin died some time before that.

 

It was Boxing News Fight Of The Year.

 

Martin died nearly 5 years prior to that ,on 20th of November 1995, the day before my birthday.