Your Ranking of Larry Holmes?

Top 10 for sure, but four seems a bit high.

 

not to mentiona 37 year old brown bomber, and 33 year old Charles with 100 pro fights who started at middleweight....Yea Marciano beat a host of prime great heavyweightsatsch

 

..........#3 for me.

 

I highly disagree, but Holmes is one of these rare critters one can argue both for and against with a fair bit of conviction. As a fighter i really rate the guy. Nobody could convince me there's 5 heavyweights ever taht could ALL beat him, not that my list is purely H2H.

 

Marciano clean out his era. Holmes didnt.

 

I won't argue with anyone having Marciano ahead. I have him right behind Holmes. People can put Marciano anywhere from 3 to 6 and i'll only applaud. At the end of the day his record is flawless. Personally i couldn't put him above Ali or Louis, but hey, some could whip up some good debate i bet.

 

4th

 

I dont try to have them in dream matchs because its all guess work. We cant even get TODAYS fights right, what makes us relly think we can guess a fighter from one era vs other fighter from other era right??

Ali and Louis are number 1 and 2 of couse. Both rein long, both clean out there divsions so to speak, and both fought the best of there era.
Of couse they both had styles that will last longer than a swamer like Marciano or Joe Fraizer, and that type of fighter will be top dog for a few years, perhaps 3 or 4. I cant dream of Joe Fraizer reining for 12 years as heavyweight champ with the style he applie. So they burn out faster of couse.
But in Holmes Marciano debate, I do rank the Rock over Holmes, because Marciano did clean out his era, and fought the best, and did give rematchs vs Walcott, and charles, and LarSarza, when they needed it. Also Holmes took on far too many 15-0 and 10-0 fighters for my taste to be rank over Marciano.

Dempsey takes a major hit with his rein, and 3 year break, and of couse failing to battle Harry Wills.

 

Dempsey isn't in my ten, so no worries there.

Personally i do factor in a little percieved head to head tho i see your point. Strictly speaking resume Marciano is hard to argue against.

 

I was pretty sure the first time Taylor would beat Pavlik lol. I had Pavlik by ko in the rematch.

 

In some ways present fights are harder to pick than cross era.

 

I clobber him more for his personality than anything else. I know that is a little dense, but it is something that comes into play, for me, regarding some fighters.

In any event, Holmes is a perpetual top ten HW in my book :good

 

Dempsey is an enigma to me regarding proper rating. I'm not trying to start anything, but I've serious doubts the guy was really as good as some make him out to be.