Who's Your #3 Heavyweight?

Jack johnson.

He has easily one of the greatest hw contemporary resume's out there. By that I mean if you drew up a top ten list of his era he'd have defeated them all.

H2h anyone his size will have an absolute handful and only those with exceptional physical advantages would I favour above him.

I have him being the best hw from 05 to 11 and that 6 year run is rivalled by few.

Outside the top 2 there are those with arguably better resume's, arguably better skillset and an arguably longer run at the top. I don't think anyone has a better combination other than the top 2.

 

Louis, Ali, with Maricano as my strong #3. Everyone else after that is fair game.

 

most will have him in the second half of a top 10 i am guessing, but i rank larry holmes very highly.
what was it?..21 sucessful heavyweight world title fights over a seven year period ?....i think young larry at his peak was very very good.

 

Larry got to the greatest age anyone did without getting beat -36 years old before anyone managed to beat him which is very very impressive in my view - from a historical perspective to have been the best in terms of that alone you've got to think highly of a champion who does that.

Haha my third is actually either Louis or Ali depending how I'm feeling top two Marciano and Dempsey I know you'll crucify me for that haha

 

I agree with LUFC, with Holmes just in behind Jack.

Resume wise, he beat pretty much everyone. While some draw the colour line, he beat the black contenders of the early on in his career. Jim Jeff wasn't interested in a fight pre retirement, so we can't fault jack for not fighting him sooner.

Defensively he was superb! His power was very underrated ( he would often hurt opponents as, when on they way down, he'd pick them up and punish them some more), all the while laughing or talking to the crowd or opposite corner.

Imagine what he would have done if he actually didn't get bored half way true.

1a Ali
1b Louis ( every time I watch him from Schmeling to the war, I don't think anyone beats him)
3 Jack Johnson
*4 Holmes
5 Lewis*

 

That depends, do you think jack had the potential to be ranked any higher than the top two?

As I said, he was at his best from 05-11. All the major players during them 6 years suffered defeat to him (unless you believe that scoring a fight purely on aggression is something worth agreeing with).

Now if jack spent the years 11-17 doing what he did plus beating langford, smith, jeannette, wills and mcvey then i'd say he'd cleaned out an era from 05-17. A consecutive 12 year domination of top level opposition.

If he did that then i'd argue his case for number 1. Could he have done that? I think not, I think his motivation and physique had slipped enough for maybe 2 out of those 5 to beat him. Meaning he wouldn't have any longer than he actually did imo.

So basically it hurts in a way that he had the right circumstances to push for goat, but it doesn't hurt in the way I don't feel he was capable anyways.

I don't value anything he did after jeffries anyways.

 

Ali is at the top
Foreman/Tyson/Liston next
The rest is too messy
And no i dont rate Louis that high

 

In a way I see your point as in he almost never faced the top 3 in any given fight.

In another way, if you drew up a 05-11 top ten and then listed their results in fights with johnson you couldn't help but be impressed.

Their are merits to both ways.

I think looking at "ratings at the time" joe louis comes off phenomenaly and the only years he didn't face the top contender were when he was away in the army (even then he did face bivins later in his career)

 

i wont lie...sent a shiver down me.

not that high ?? :huh