who is your number three and why?

Lennox Lewis.

 

I understand your choice , but stating EASILY Sonny Liston is not right. That implies he easily beats Marciano, Lewis, Dempsey, Johnson, and Tyson to your 3 spot. Liston was a great HW, and might beat a lot of the heavys on his day. But these are the greatest heavys of all-time in terms of achievement.

 

Lennox Lewis, i also wrote a long post about it long ago.

He was and fought nearly exclusively fought top contenders from 1992 to 2003; eleven years. Number of contenders and/or punchers beat only bested by Louis and Ali. No one ever had his number stylistically. Never lost it mentally like Foreman or Liston after the Ali fights. Could fight off the backfoot for 12 rounds if he choose to. Has a cute accent and looked like predator.

 

Tough call for me. Gotta go with Holmes.

IMO Lewis is overrated - he beat alot of has-beens and favorable stylistic matchups. He's impressive H2H but his resume to me is just lacking - I think we overrate the value of guys like Botha, Grant, and Golota just because we actually remember watching the fights live. IMO those guys aren't very different from the Machens, Folleys, Terrels, Williams, etc. of earlier eras.

His longevity is impressive, but I really am of the opinion that he only looked good/better when he got older (say Holyfield on) because he started fighting lesser competition. Seriously - his toughest fight post-Holyfield (who wasn't very difficult to beat, himself) was Tua. Stylistically, Tua was at a HUGE disadvantage facing a guy like Lewis. His "best" opponent post-Holyfield was Klitschko, and we all know how that one turned out. Don't even get me started on that shell of Tyson atsch

I can't get over his stunning KO losses either. The way they sort of bookend his career is detracting from his legacy, and no rematch could fix that.
I can think of one guy that had his number stylistically, too -

Ray Mercer.

IMO Lewis is still a lock for top 5 - I have him above guys like Marciano and Dempsey.

 

But did Lewis and Holmes beat up a bear?? Marciano sure did. He gets the vote over Lewis and Holmes imo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcIT0Tb5aEk

 

Any chance of a link? I'm a big Liston fan but I'd struggle to get him Top 5 let alone Top 3. I'm not doubting your opinion, I'm just curious.

 

Who did Holmes beat tho? His best opponent was an over the hill Norton who had quite possibly been beat by Young in the very fight before. Cooney and Shavers were big hitters but ordinary vs great opposition. Lewis overall has beaten better fighters than Holmes, and regarding struggles Mercer was a better fighter than Snipes who had Larry heavily on his ass. Holmes also avoided the bigger challengers his last 3 or 4 years.

 

My Top 10:

1. Joe Louis
2. Muhammad Ali
3. Larry Holmes
4. Lennox Lewis
5. Joe Frazier
6. Sonny Liston
7. Rocky Marciano
8. Mike Tyson
9. Jack Johnson
10. Evander Holyfield

 

It's a very tough call for #3 between Holmes and Lewis, but I think Larry just edges it.

Of late Dempsey has slipped out of my top 10 altogether (he was about #9 prior), Johnson and Liston have both moved up a few places. Jeffries and Foreman are borderline but just miss out.

 

1: Louis
2: Ali
3: Marciano
4: Jeffries
5: Lewis



He has a 49-0-0 (43 KO´s)- record, has the best % against ranked fighters, beat many HOF´s, never needed the judges to win his fights, etc...

 

A case can be made for these:

Holmes, Liston, Lewis, Dempsey, Johnson, even Jeffries (maybe the most dominant ever).

My Top 10 goes like that, strictly on head-to-head basis:

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

Just missing it: Frazier & Holyfield & Jeffries

 

The No 3 slot passes between Jeffries, Johnson and Dempsey for me.

I just shuffle them around periodicaly.

 

Just out of curiosity what would your full list look like? Johnson has always on the fringes of my Top 10 overall although it's only recently that I've had him as high as #9 (sometimes I even think that's underrating him. I have Jeff higher than Dempsey incidently.)

Still, I've always Johnson guy as being a very formidible head-to-head force. He matches up well to quite a few fighters stylistically and there aren't that many I'd make a strong fave against him.