Who Was The Dirtiest Of The Heavyweight Champions?

Max Baer seemed to repeatedly get away with the back hand and I’m not talking about his right cross.
He repeatedly got away with it against Schmeling.

 

Why Akinwande , because he kept holding Lennox Lewis in a fight he lost? But no mention of Wladmir who used Henry's exact same tactics to win ?

All throughout his title reign he won by "fighting" the same way Henry got disqualified for

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Thinking about it more, yea your right. I was in class when I read that so didn't really comprehend.
PS: he will always be perfect in my heart <3

 

Tyson was clearly framed.

 

Sounds like poor Don had everything AND The kitchen sink thrown at him that day!
But the guy kept on hanging in as long as he could.

 

Carnera also used the backhand on Loughran while also deliberately stepping on Tommy's feet early. For all the criticism Primo got, he was very definitely not stupid. He was actually a pretty smart fighter.

When Max Baer asked referee and sole judge Jack Dempsey why the Mauler awarded the 20 round decision to Paulino Uzcudun, Jack replied, "He did a better job of fouling that you did, Max!"

Back in the mid 1980's KO Magazine said Jack Sharkey was the dirtiest of the HW Champions, and the Squire of Epping, New Hampshire did not disagree.

Foreman was dirty, Ali was dirty.

Arthur Mercante said in his autobiography that Joe Frazier was an extremely clean competitor for his style of boxing.


I consider Sonny Liston and Mike Tyson to have been very clean fighters who tended to foul only in retaliation when provoked. As for Sonny's low blows against Machen, he was trying to get to Eddie's body underneath a textbook high guard, but it was Machen who infuriated Liston by hitting on the break and roughousing a bewildered Sonny, spinning him around in a clinch. Eddie, very far from having any fear of Liston, tried to provoke him into losing his cool and making mistakes which could open him to Machen's hook.

 

It’s Holyfield.

Louis was the cleanest.

 

Dempsey is up there

 

Larry Holmes was notorious with his thumbs
Vlad leaned and held
Lennox Held and hit
Holyfield's head
Ali holding the head down

wait let's ask "WHO was clean?

 

Tunney, Schmeling, Braddock (haven't seen him do anything suspicious on film or read anything bad about him), Louis, Charles, Patterson, Frazier.

 

JJW accidentally backhanded Louis during their first bout, apologized profusely for it, and Louis accepted the apology, touching gloves briefly while continuing on.

If Norton is to be accepted as a heavyweight champion, then Ken could make the list as a clean fighter.

Leon Spinks wasn't highly skilled, but he was the undisputed heavyweight champion, and to me he was a very clean fighter.

We do have footage of Jess Willard from Lil' Artha,' Moran, Dempsey, Floyd Johnson and Firpo. I don't see that he was dirty.

Gene Tunney said that during their bouts, Dempsey was continually apologizing for striking foul blows during the action. As one put it, "Sure, he hit low, but he never howled if YOU hit him low!" In Jack's autobiography, he lauded Joe Louis for being far more of a gentleman in the ring than he himself was. Did Gene hit Carp low? Scrutinize the footage carefully. (So far, I can't be sure.)

Corbett, Fitz and Burns seemed to be clean. Wyatt Earp was the referee who disqualified Fitz against Tom Sharkey, but this is controversial and spurious, greeted by the spectators with loud booing and catcalls.

Ellis, if we accept Jimmy as a champion, was pretty clean.

 

Riddick Bowe

 

It’s crazy isn’t it?

Aside from the blinding allegations (which have been thrashed about enough and throughly debunked imo) what did Liston do wrong?

He was actually a very clean and open boxer imo. He certainly wasn’t prone to holding and grappling as Ali was in his second career.

Liston’s biggest crimes were that he actually boxed (very well) and punched exceptionally hard.

Low blows against Machen?? Yes, we can see that one coming. Liston wasn’t guilty of throwing low blows otherwise.

Machen was the one who fought quite dirty in that fight - holding, pushing (incl. pushing down on the head - hello low blows??, hitting on the break etc).

Eddie’s own tactics were over sighted because Liston was the preordained villain going into the fight.

Fouling the deemed villain is often allowed a pass in fights. Meanwhile, the supposed villain is scrutinised more heavily. Somewhat of a “set up” really.

There have been so many wild claims made re Liston - most if not all debunked when, god forbid, actual facts and common sense are introduced into the discussion.

I’ve often said that Liston made/makes for a convenient “fall guy”. I mean, he was the ONLY one to blame for the chaos in Maine. Lol.