Who's HW resume is better Liston, Holyfield, Holmes or Lewis

Holyfield
Lewis
Holmes
Liston

 

Holyfield first.

Lewis second, but its close. Holyfield has the superior resume and all, but Lewis having that head to head edge gains him serious ground. Nothing counts more when comparing who is greater than who than their record against eachother, if they ever fought. And while Holyfield wasn't prime, he was relevant enough for those two wins to count, being the #1 heavy in the world and all.

Holmes- He's the best of the group head to head, but his overall resume has holes. He was champ forever, but after Norton and Shavers, who'd he beat that was really worth anything? Cooney? Nah. Holmes ranks higher than Lennox or Holyfield because of how fine a fighter he was, but he falls a few points behind each on resume.

Liston. A top 10 heavyweight h2h, but his resume is among the weaker of all the great champions. Thrashing a prime Patterson twice is nice, and he was very dominant over contenders in his prime, but the lack of any win against another truly top end heavyweight hurts his resume without something else to compensate, like Holmes longevity.

 

I'd probably say Holyfield the best resume of the four.

A 42 year old Holmes beat Ray Mercer, who is often regarded as one of the very best names on the resumes of both Holyfield and Lewis.
And I think Holmes beat quite a few men of Mercer's caliber when he was younger.
So I disagree that he's a clear way behind Holyfield and Lewis.
In fact, I think he's in competition with Holyfield and Lewis for having the best resume of the four.

The real problem with Holmes' resume is he seemed to face quite a few novices. Promising fighters, but with 20 or less fights under their belt, and not much experience against good opposition.

It's more difficult for me to judge Liston against these three. I dont know. He may not have faced the best names but I suspect some of the guys he fought were at full peak at the time. Zora Folley seemed to quite a live proposition when Liston faced him, for example.

 

I think Lennox has a pretty good case for being in the lead, but not by a huge margin, and nor do I have quarell with anyone who pics someone else... Yes he lost to two lesser fighters but also has the claim to having beaten everyone he ever fought at some point or another. He medaled in two olympics, began fighting top quality opposition at an early stage in his career, and has some significant wins when we look at Vitali Klitschko, David Tua, Shannon Briggs, Andrew Golata, Razor Ruddock, Frank Bruno, Oliver McCall, Hasim Rahman, and Gary Mason..

A fine fighter and spectacular resume to say the least.

 

as far as who he fought no one can really match Holyfield if you look at fighting top 10 heavyweights. His win loss record is not as great, but regardless he fought everyone. Who did he not fight? Tua? the Klitchkos.

 

Lewis
Holmes
Liston
Holy

 

1. Holyfield - Cleaned out and unified 176-190 pounds, two wins each against HOFers Qawi and Tyson, unseated reigning lineal champs Douglas and Bowe, and beat other future/former lineal champs in Rahman, Moorer, and "Old" Foreman.

2. Lewis - Beat a still-dangerous Holy (twice, IMO) to unify the title, also beat top contenders Ruddock, Tua, Grant, and Vitali, and regained the title from Rahman. Probably comparable to Holmes' resume, but the win(s) over Holy give him the edge IMO.

3. Holmes - Beat HOFer Norton, former unified champ Spinks(Leon), and top contenders Shavers (twice), Cooney, and Mercer. Looks better in restrospect, given that a number of his opponents went on to win "titles" afterward (ie: Weaver, Witherspoon, Bonecrusher), but I'm still not convinced it surpasses Lewis' resume.

4. Liston - Twice beat a HOF champ in Patterson, but only beat two other fighters rated in the top 5 at the top (Folley and Machen). And the one HOFer he beat was probably weaker the the best fighter(s) that the above three beat.

 

Incidentally, I think he may of gotten close to the best version of Cleveland Williams, who dropped only a split-decision to Ernie Terrell from 1960 all the way up to his title shot against Ali in 1966. Apart from Liston, Williams ran off a rather impressive 35-1-1 record from 1956-66.

 

Harris was another pretty good win (aside from Folley, Machen, Williams). He wouldn't continue for much longer thereafter, but the only mark on his record was a loss to Patterson (going 12) when Liston did what he was supposed to and stopped him in the first.

 

Thank you sir! Were you born in '89 Stonehands? I love that younger guys still love the sport. I'm not an old fart but I was born in '74. I've loved boxing for as long as I can remember. I grew up watching Holmes, Leonard, Hearns, Hagler, Benitez, Duran, Arguello, Pryor, Mancini, and others. I'd catch the replays of old Ali, Marciano, and other great fights. I really got intense about studying the history of the sport in my early teens. I also used to spar a lot (boxing and martial arts) but never fought in any tournaments or organized amateur bouts. Anyway, thanks again!

 

1. Lewis
2. Holmes
3. Holyfield
4. Liston

 

Haha! Nah. I'm a bit older than you! I only chose "Stonehands89" way back when because there already was a "Stonehands" on ESB. 1989 was the year of one of my favorite fights ever -Duran v. Barkley.

 

I would say Lewis has a better HW resume than Holyfield but combining overall career Holyfields is higher

It would be interesting to see where Holy would stand in an ATG HW list if his CW career is included

 

Lewis
Holyfield
Holmes
Liston

In terms of who they fought and not just who they beat, I'd probably move Lewis down a slot, Holmes would be closer too.

 

Right on, excellent fight. I really wanted to see them fight again.