Who was the best all time could have been at heavyweight?

Theres not many HW's who didnt finish careers but a handful who messed theirs up ruining or watering it down. Ibragimov would have never beat Klitchko at any point . Ike was a stronger Bruno ,either would have been top 5 . I cant say for certain if any HW would have been a champion who didnt finish careers .

Im going to go with a dark horse here........... Kevin Rooney trained Daniel Dancuta a 90's HW with huge amateur experience and power . He had one bad fight against Jimmy Thunder ,imop Dancuta would have been a champion hadhe kept his head straight.

"The world reknown trainer will be in Dancuta's corner Monday at The Mark of the Quad Cities. The 6-foot-3, 240-pound Dancuta 15-2 will be fighting journeyman West Turner 17-6 in a featured heavyweight bout on the "Mayhem at The Mark" card.

"Tyson's with promoter Don King. That's his gig now," added Rooney. "Mine's working with this kid and making him better and better.

"To tell you the truth, I wouldn't mind having him fight Mike someday."

 

Ibragimov?

Ike Ibeabuchi will be the biggest question mark, guaranteed, for life.

 

I remember Dancuta beating Tony Tubbs in the final of some type of Cedric Kushner Heavyweight Explosion tournament in early 1994.

 

Another 2 years under Rooney he could have fought the top guys even after the loss,he was a bit unrefined but getting better. All these fights are early ones.

This content is protected

 

I'd pick Vitali. Even though he was still an atg and I rank him top ten, Vitali is usually ranked behind his brother and more in the top 15 range. Considering his talent and achievements, against some bad luck, he didn't live up to his potential. If he had fought Wlad, he likely would have won by tko, but couldn't because of his relationship. A disproportionate number of the eras other top fighters who he offered fights to avoided him, either to face the weaker brother (like Haye) or just to avoid him entirely(like Valuev) Probably would have won a rematch with Lewis if Lewis had been up for it. Was planning to fight Tyson when Tyson lost to Williams. Planning to fight Rahman when he got severe leg injury. Could have fought the ghost of Holyfield and put that on his resume like most atgs have done to former champs in the past, but didn't. Few except the psycho haters would claim he wouldn't have beaten all of the above (except Lewis which is debatable). He had a million ways he could have made his career look vastly better and it didn't work out for him. If he done all of the above(beat Lewis in a rematch, put Tyson and Holyfield on his resume, beat Rahman, Haye and Valuev and his Wlad to boot) he'd likely be ranked as a top three hw atg.

 

I forgot how big Dancuta was. 6'4" and 246 lbs??? I also forgot he was trained by Rooney.

 

Odlanier Solis

 

In his defense to I thought the Thunder fight was stopped early,he was a bit wobbled but fighting back ,should have been at least a standing count with a few seconds left in the round. He wasn't throwing punches ,not his normal style, Rooney was trying to teach him to be patient but not that patient..lol

Also Thunder was Morrisons sparring partner so those sessions were probably brutal with two home run hitters. Dancuta was no Morrison at that point. .

 

Yeah that was a BS stoppage. Bayless shouldn't have stopped it like that so early. I can see if it was in the late rounds with Dancuta taking punishment throughout the entire fight.

 

The One.

Should have never been above 220.
Probably should have stayed below 210.

 

Dont know if this meets the criteria but with a proper trainer and proper management Cooneys careercould have turned out a helluvalot different

 

I think Teofilio Stevenson.
I know the amateurs is a lot different from the professionals but it is very likely Stevenson had the size, speed, power and boxing skill/talent to have been a success in the pros.

 

Don't know if his name has been mentioned already, but I think that if Tim Witherspoon had been more dedicated, better trained and managed he would have gone a lot further than he did. As it was he still had a pretty damn good career.