Who is your #3 Heavyweight?

#1 ali
#2 marciano
#3 liston

 

where is joe louis in your list?

 

DEMPSEY

 

he's #4.

 

Purely on head-to-head (15 rounds of boxing)

1. Ali
2. Louis
3. Liston
4. Holmes
5. Foreman
6. Lewis
7. Dempsey
8. Johnson
9. Marciano
10. Jeffries

HM: Mike Tyson, Joe Frazier, Evander Holyfield

 

1. Ali
2. Tyson
3. Louis

Louis pure accomplishments put him clearly above the rest. Not factoring in head to head he is 2nd.

 

1.Louis
2.Ali
3.Holmes

 

that's a nice list. BTW hadn't seen u in a while, is it becuase i started posting less in the forum or u weren't there?

 

Great topic! I've been thinking a lot about this lately, actually. Up until a few days ago I had Holmes locked in my top three up there with Ali and Louis, but, most recently, I've been having nagging doubts about his opposition. I really only have two main criteria for ranking fighters, resume is one, and hypothetical head-to-head is the other; basically who the guy has beat and who he can conceivably beat.

Here's the list:
1. Muhammad Ali
2. Joe Louis
3. Larry Holmes
4. Rocky Marciano
5. Evander Holyfield
6. Lennox Lewis
7. George Foreman
8. Mike Tyson
9. Joe Frazier
10. Sonny Liston

There are other factors like longevity, skills and physique, but they are considered more or less secondary as they should more often than not reflect on the resume anyway.

 

I'd have to put Holmes at #3. Although I think he'd take Louis head to head, it's tough to give him the #2 slot given that Louis had that marathon reign. Ali, of course is my #1, and always will be.

 

Wow, I did not expect for Holmes to rank so highly among so many posters here. Well, this is a surprise

 

Your list is almost identical to what mine would look like. My only difference, is that I'm not quite sure where to put Liston and Tyson. They both had impressive careers, but rather dicey.

 

It's a myth that Holmes is under rated. Everyone has him in their top 5 pretty much.