Worst lineal heavyweight champion of all time

Carnera successfully defended the championship twice during his 12 month reign. Those fights are generally viewed as on the level.
And Uzcudun and Loughran were not bad.
That disqualifies him from consideration, for me.

Jack Sharkey is reasonable inclusion. His win resume is quite good but he lost to several ordinary fighters too, and his title fight record and reign is not good at all. He fouled Sharkey, was gifted the rematch, then flopped out against Carnera.

 

I don't even consider Marvin Hart legitimate champion.

Why exactly is his fight with Jack Root taken seriously as the historic "lineage" ?

 

I wanted it to be George Foreman because I admit his over rating as a bald man has become my most recent irritation. But I simply cannot because he knocked out somebody to win it.

Ideally the worst champion must be somebody who inconclusively won the title in the first place so that kind of rules out George. A knockout is concrete evidence that the guy deserved to win.

Shannon did not conclusively beat a world champion to gain his linage but wasn’t that linage tarnished or defunct by that time what with George refusing to face legit contenders and handing back the belts? I am not sure Shannon even qualifies as a champion in this case.

So that leaves either Leon or whom ever was bad enough to lose to Bald George.

I think Leon deserved to beat Ali and by having so few fights I see this as a unique feat among champions. he beat the same guy more convincingly than Ernie Shavers or Norton managed. I can’t think of any ATG who could have beaten even that version of Ali with so few fights. So at least Leon has that fewest fights USP.

Moorer became champion because the champion he beat (Holyfield) put on a very odd performance. He decked Moorer then had some sort of funny turn and only the screaming of his coach managed to keep Moorer in that fight against a champion who was inexplicably not performing at all. Moorer deserved to win under these strange circumstances. But they were strange.

But at least Moorer had a better overall career than Leon Spinks. So where does that leave us?

It’s between Moorer and Spinks.

 

I don't think that you can treat the bald George Foreman, as a separate entity from the version with a glorious head of hair.

It is still the same man at the end of the day!

 

How can you say Primo, haven't you seen the 3 second highlight clip of his skill?

 

Because that is the understanding that was reached at the time.

We can't review it retrospectively.

 

Be that as it may, his resume is far too deep for him to be in contention.

It is actually one of the deeper resumes of all the lineal champions, for all his inconsistency!

 

Yeah, I have an issue with the first post where the guy said he beat an out of shape Ali. Ali was firing combos in the 14th and 15th rounds. In fact, the last round of Ali-Spinks 1 is one of the greatest 15th rounds in heavyweight history. If Ali was out of shape going in, he certainly GOT IN SHAPE as the fight progressed. Ali nearly stopped Shavers in the 15th round the fight before.

It wouldn't be Leon Spinks for me, either.

To be honest, if Tyson Fury doesn't fight again, or he never beats another top fighter, it might be Tyson Fury.

I love Tyson Fury. I think he's a great character. I think the sport needs him. I hope he returns and is great.

That said, Tyson's win over Wlad was AWFUL. Just awful.

Wlad did nothing, and Tyson never engaged and just landed like six jabs a round. Wlad just did worse.

Spinks-Ali I, by comparison to Fury-Wlad, was an amazing back-and-forth brawl.

What other names besides Wlad did Fury outjab? Chisora? Was Derek better than Mercado? Ehh?

If you win the lineal title, you generally are a pretty decent fighter.

But if we're just going by wins, Leon has better wins (and looked better in those wins) than Tyson Fury did in his.

I doubt Tyson Fury could've thrown as many shots as Leon and still had the energy to go to war with Ali in a 13th, 14th and 15th round.

That said, I hope Tyson Fury returns and does great.

 

I think you are correct. I shall have to keep telling myself George was always George and they are still one and the same person. I just think George, like Samson before him, needed that hair in order to be great.

 

Carnera defended against Uzcudun in1933 he hadn't hadn't been a ranked fighter for 5 years!

 

Great observation about Ali’s 15th round. I have long championed Leon’s astonishing win with just so few fights under his belt. Whatever happened to him after that he showed to have a real spark of something.

 

Uzcudun was a top notch guy.

 

No Chok, he hadn't been a ranked heavy since 1928 after Primo he had 3 more fights winning none of them,he was old news.

 

But those last fights were the worlds best heavyweights back to back. Schmeling twice then joe Louis. Paulino drew with a 1934 version of Max Schmeling AFTER losing to Carnera!

Imagine. Schmeling draws with Paulino, beats him in another close fight then goes to America to give Joe Louis a beating of a lifetime on the back of a draw and a win over Uzcudun! The man who lost to Carnera!

People don’t like Primo but Never forget, Joe Louis was knocked out by a guy who drew with a guy Carnera beat.

Before fighting Carnera for the title Paulino was on a 6 fight win streak having picked up the European title. He’d previously beaten Tom Heeney, Harry wills, jack Renault and Max Baer!

That’s a top notcher.