We are always seeing all time lists but they are always skewed by people using different criteria so I'm proposing one. Imagine if there was a 3 year period where your top 10 all fought each other once with 3pts for a KO win, 2pts for a win by decision and 1pt for a draw- what would the final league table be??? Judge each boxer how they fought in their prime years! This way the best boxer emerges even though one boxer may win 8 out of 9 and lose to a guy who only won that fight. Yes he lost a fight but the guy that beat him wouldn't have gathered enough points in the other 8 fights to gain top spot. Anyhow, heres mine: 1. Ali 2. Louis 3. Foreman 4. Lewis 5. Frazier 6. Holmes 7. Liston 8. Johnson 9. Dempsey 10. Vitali (yes you read that right) What are yours??
if this is a list based on how they would do head to head against each other, i think dempsey and marciano should definitely not be included, when they are included in lists of atg it is making allowances for the age in which they boxed. marciano weighed about 185lb, and dempsey weighed 190lb theses two would be small for cruiserweights today. Even joe frazier boxed weighing between 200-210lbs with the vast majority of his knockouts against cruiserweight sized opponents
Comsidering that Dempsey in the modern era would be considered a crude slugging light heavyweight,I dont think he should be anywhere near an ATG list if you're using head to head match ups. Same goes for Marciano. On accomplishments...sure. Not H2H!