Who's Your #3 Heavyweight?

ali
lewis
holmes at 3

 

Absolutely.

Maricano wasn't as busy a Champion as Holmes but he still somehow defended against more #1 and #2 contenders..overall top 5 contenders, cleaned out all the big names, defeated more Hall of Famers in relevant stages of their careers, and conclusively retired as the top dog by KOing Archie Moore, who was perhaps the honoroable #1 P4P fighter on the planet at the time after defeating Baker, Olsen, Johnson, and Valdez.

Think about it, it would be like LHW Champion Spinks beating MW Champion Hagler in a Superfight and HW#1s Pinklon Thomas and Coetzee before challenging Holmes, and Holmes coming up with a resounding win to end his career...not back two back close losses to a guy in his first HW fight. With his win over Moore Maricano cleaned the entire house out, while for all his greatness Holmes left us with a big ass mess.

Even without Moore's credentials, the great LHW Spinks was not lacking in ability and was without question the real legacy defining Super Fight Holmes was waiting for his whole career...he ****ing blew it. Don't get me wrong Holmes was a great Champion and credit must be given to somebody who defended the title as much as he did, but if we are comparing him to the legacy of Rocky Maricano, he comes up short.

 

I have Holmes at #3; I don't necessarily agree either, that the precipitous drop-off occurs after the first two. I think Holmes fits in rather nicely there, and would give a young Ali or Louis fits.

After #3 I think it plummets a bit.

 

its a toss up with prime versions of holmes tyson or foreman .

 

Ali
Louis
Johnson

Foreman and Frazier are knocking on the door though.

I have Holmes further down. Interesting to see some are rating Holmes higher than Ali based on his run of title wins. Ali had two hall of fame careers and beat more highly rated contenders than any other HW, Liston, chuvalo, Patterson, foley, bugner, quarry, frazier, Norton, foreman, shavers, lyle...etc.

 

Holmes because of his dominance.....Lewis and Foreman are close.....

 

Either Holmes or Lennox. Tyson stands a good chance against the top 3 head-to-head, though.

 

H2H Louis is my number 1.....Lewis and Ali next......

 

I don't know my top ten but my top 3 as always been;
Ali
Louis
Holmes

and in no order Foreman, Lewis, Frazier/Tyson would be take up the next 3-4 places, after that idk.

Holmes with his title defences and consistently good skills on show deserves to be right up there. H2H i see him getting beat by a few though. Notably Foreman, Lewis, Tyson.

 

Ali
Louis
Holmes

Holmes takes my number three spot due to his longevity and skill.

 

I think up until the inactivity after beating jeffries he did do that.

 

Dempsey .
ps Louis is no 4.

 

Mine was always Johnson. I'm not so sure anymore, difficult question. I'll stick with Johnson for now.