Your favourite heavyweight of all time?

Ali-The most gifted Heavy of all time-Graceful and wonderful to watch.

Louis- The most proffecient and exact. Chilling combo's

Lewis- For Patriotic reasons. He also handled himself with class throughout his career.

 

I picked Ali for obvious reasons really
but i must also mention Mike Tyson

I feel extremely sorry for this guy i dont think he is a bad guy at all i think life has handed him a raw deal. He was the most naturally gifted heavyweight i think of his era maybe ever and i hope things work out for him.

 

Jem Mace
Peter Jackson

 

Marciano...by most measures a man who should have never been champ but is arguably one of TBE.
Ali for his showmanship and style
Foreman for his brute power and emotional ending to his comeback.
Those guys I can watch all day for no reason at all.

 

For those who know me?....DUH...……….

 

Rocky Marciano...feared no man...great physical strength...chin...power in both hands...(especially the "Suzie Q)...
conditioning...stamina....worked his ass off to get to 189 lbs. His "kill or be killed" attitude...had no business being the Heavyweight champ.....5'10...189 lbs....started boxing late at the age of 24...short arms...thick tree trunk legs
...awkward....had a great trainer in Charlie Goldman....he said that he only had to tell Rocky something once...he never forget...gave everything he had in the ring...what he lacked in finesse he made up with round after round of brutal attack....met him as a kid....killer in the ring...classy out of it...put him in the ring with anyone!!!

 

Walcott and Braddock had the best back stories -- both were considered washed up and had been on relief in New Jersey -- so when you talk about favorites, their comebacks are hard for me to ignore.

Floyd Patterson was the most gentlemanly, and he worked hard to successfully restore his reputation in his comeback bouts Eddie Machen, George Chuvalo, and Oscar Bonavena, Jerry Quarry, and Jimmy Ellis after the two devastating losses to Sonny Liston.

Jack Johnson had a lot of guts to stand up to white America in 1910. Just think of the personal courage it took to fight Jim Jeffries before an almost 100% white audience and to exchange barbs with Jim Corbett, Jack London and others at ringside while he was dishing out a beating to big Jim. It was the Real Deal Wild West in Las Vegas at the time and who knows how many guns were in the crowd. Nobody was asked to check them at the gate. And anybody could have shot Johnson on the spot.

Muhammad Ali showed courage in taking stands against racism and the Viet Nam War. He basically was forced to take the title overseas to fight London, Cooper, and Mildenberger because the stateside boxing commissions would not grant him a license to fight in America. Finally, the Texas commission relented and he was able to come back and fight at the Astrodome against Cleveland Williams and Ernie Terrell. Later, he was stripped of his title and faced jail time for his Muslim beliefs, and he took his case all the way to the Supreme Court. Still later, he launched a successful comeback after three years of ring inactivity, regained his title, and engaged in some of the greatest heavyweight bouts in history.

Max Schmeling showed courage in standing up to Joe Louis at a time when Louis was thought to be unbeatable. Max had a plan for their first fight, but he knew ahead of time he would have to take a beating along the way to implement it, and if you look at pictures of him after the fight he sure did. But he had faith in his plan and he stuck with it and prevailed. By the same token, Louis took a helluva beating in that fight, but he fought to the last ounce of his strength before being counted out. And he had the courage and faith in himself to defeat Max in the return match.

These are the first stories to come to mind when I think about heavyweight champions.

 

William Sherriff. Arguably undefeated in fights in which he didn't die.

 

I've never seen a more hipster answer in ALL of my time procrastinating on the Internet.

 

Louis.

But Marciano, Ali, Frazier, Foreman, and Lewis are very close.

Schmeling and Charles are also very interesting guys to me, although obviously they are second tier guys as compared to the others.

 

You mean their colors? The colored sash around their waists that corresponded in color with a sash tied to the fighter's corner and the sashes the fans would wave in the air to support their favored fighter?

 

Vitali Klitschko, because he is vastly underrated.

 

3 joes
Frazier
Louis
Walcott

 

I am working on a 4 volume work of his life and career. This is no pithy response but my life guiding passion.