Your top 10 heavyweight boxers from 1960-1980?

1. Ali
2. Liston
3. Holmes
4. Frazier
5. Foreman

Unsure of where I rate these names....

Patterson
Norton
Quarry
Lyle
Young
Lyle
Ellis
Shavers

For the top 5 I think Frazier at his best could beat Holmes where as I see Foreman losing to Holmes and possibly Young again with an outside chance of losing to Quarry maybe. So even though H2H Foreman beats Frazier I think Frazier overall may do better against the top 10 I have him going 7-3 where as I have Foreman going 6-4.

I'm surprised Patterson is not on alot of these lists he got robbed vs Ellis whilst past his prime and alot of people think he was unlucky vs Quarry and Patterson was also a past his prime in those fights aswell.

The top 5 I think are pretty easy although the order of names may be different depending on your criteria. But the next names below that are very hard for me for example I think a prime Patterson beats Quarry, Ellis, Young, but then he may he KO'ed by big punchers like Shavers, Lyle. So I think I'll just stick with my top 5 and have the rest of the names as possible maybes for the top 10.

 

Foremans success in the 90s is the reason the 70s is considered the best era and the reason Ali is considered the GOAT. Ali beat Foreman once not twice on an off night. And other than that Foreman did better against the top fighters of their generation.

I normally don't count Holmes in the 70s because he came to the scene at the end. But its an arbitrary cutoff and it could really go either way. I was never ranking him below Shavers and Bugner. He wasn't being counted.

I stand by everything I said about Tony Tucker. I rate the padded resume with fewer losses higher compared to someone who fights elite competition and takes a lot of losses. I think the modern fan is overreacting to the rise of Mayweatherism. You clearly don't agree but this is a consistant theme in my postings and you should be able to understand it. Instead of acting bewildered every time I express something consistantly.

 

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Larry Holmes
3. Sonny Liston
4. George Foreman
5. Joe Frazier
6. Jimmy Young
7. Floyd Patterson
8. Ken Norton
9. Earnie Terrell
10. Jerry Quarry

 

Foreman only beat 1 ranked fighter in the 90s and he was a mile behind on points when he beat Moorer. The only other two ranked fighters he fought in the 90s were Holyfield, Morrison, and he was beaten very decisively by both fighters.

I can excuse the Holyfield fight as Holyfield was a great champion, but Morrison should've been tailor made for Foreman with his weak chin. And Foreman was beaten very handily by Morrison who had been life and death with the likes of Joe Hipp, destroyed in 60 seconds by unremarkable Bentt, and got a draw vs journeyman Purrity.

Foreman having an off night vs Ali ? he was considered in his prime and a considerable favourite. Ali was past his prime and people were worried about his health at the time, if anything Ali beating a prime Foreman decisively whilst being past his prime should be an argument in favour of Ali not against it. Also why should Ali have to beat Foreman twice ?

As for Foreman doing better against the top fighters of their generation well that just means Foreman matched up better against certain opponents. That doesn't mean Foreman should be rated over Ali considering he fought nowhere near the amount of top 10 ranked opponents that Ali did so he's far less tested overall.

Norton froze against punchers so Foreman would do stylistically better vs Norton, Frazier was not in his prime vs Foreman and out of shape. I still don't think even Frazier at his best would beat Foreman so i'll give Foreman alot of credit for the win.

But Ali fought Lyle and well Ali kind of slept walk through the fight until he turned it up in the 11th round and stopped Lyle. Ali was never in danger vs Lyle unlike Foreman was plus Ali was considerably past his prime vs Lyle. So i don't think you can say Foreman did better vs Lyle when he was dropped twice and in terrible trouble multiple times.

Ali did look bad vs Young but again he was considerably past his prime and in the worst shape of his career. Young didn't look impressive vs Ali despite probably being unlucky to not get the nod it was still close fight although a terrible one. Foreman on the other hand was beaten convincingly by Young and dropped in the last round and that was a 28 year old Foreman.

Foreman also didn't fight Quarry who he probably wouldn't of looked as impressive as Ali did against, Ellis could've gave a young Foreman some issues with his movement and boxing skills. Bugner would've been interesting if he was motivated as Bugner was very durable and if Foreman didn't get rid of him early it could get interesting.

And finally as for me being bewildered i think i have good reason to be you didn't mention Holmes originally as one of the top 10 H2H fighters. And had someone like Shavers above him when not only did Holmes beat him twice in the 70s including a 12-0 win over Shavers in their 1st fight. Holmes H2H would almost certainly be rated above the likes of Ellis, Bugner, Lyle, etc so yes it is baffling and i have good reason to be baffled. As for Tucker 1 win notable win in the 80s and you rate him as one of the best of the era because he beat Douglas 3 years prior to Douglas upsetting Tyson, it's like rating Ferguson high because he also beat Douglas 4 years prior to Douglas beating Tyson again it's a baffling take to me and i'll never understand it.

 

Anyone who chooses Young for this list whilst leaving Patterson off of it needs to have his head examined.

 

OOPS !! My feeble excuse is that I made this list before I had breakfast !

Revised list :

Muhammad Ali
Larry Holmes
Sonny Liston
Joe Frazier
George Foreman
Jerry Quarry
Jimmy Young
Ken Norton
Ron Lyle
Joe Bugner.

 

The exact placement of some of these is subject to opinion but here’s a rough idea.

Muhammad Ali
George Foreman
Joe Frazier
Sonny Liston
Larry Holmes
Floyd Patterson
Jimmy Ellis
Ken Norton
Ernie Terrell
Jerry Quarry

 

Top heavyweights from 1960-1980

1. Muhammad Ali (Gold medalist; 19 successful title defenses over two reigns; most dominant champ in the 1960s and the 1970s)

2. Joe Frazier (Gold medalist; 9 successful title defenses; most successful defending champ after Ali; win over Ali in the Fight of the Century; stopped Ellis twice, Quarry twice, beat Bonavena twice, stopped Chuvalo; Ali and Frazier WERE the heavyweight division in the 60s and 70s; Frazier was a fixture in the division from 1966-1976)

3. George Foreman (Gold medalist; two successful defenses; stopped Chuvalo, Joe Frazier twice and Ken Norton; most dominant heavyweight in the ring in the 70s other than Ali, ranked from 1970 to post-retirement 1978)

4. Sonny Liston (Most dominant heavyweight in the ring in the 1960s other than Ali; beat Patterson twice, Machen, Williams; ranked from 1960 to 1970)

5. Floyd Patterson (Gold medalist; first ever two-time heavyweight champ; only two defenses in this time frame; knocked out Johansson twice, beat Bonavena, Machen, Cooper, arguably beat both Ellis and Quarry; ranked from 1960-1972, but was never really dominant at all in the 1960s or 70s)

6. Larry Holmes (Won five WBC title fights in the 70s; biggest wins in this period were over Norton, Shavers (twice) and Weaver. He would be higher but he was only relevent for two or three years in the 70s)

7. Ken Norton (The top heavyweight challenger for half a decade in the 1970s who didn't win a title fight; beat Ali, beat Quarry, beat Young, lost a split decision to Holmes in a classic)

8. Jimmy Ellis (Beat Martin, beat Bonavena and beat Quarry to win WBA heavyweight tournament; defended against Patterson; beat Chuvalo; was a heavyweight fixture from 1967-1975.)

9. Jerry Quarry (Beat Shavers, Lyle, Patterson, Mathis, Mac Foster; engaged in the Fight of the Year with Frazier; top 10 heavyweight from 1967-1975, too)

THOSE NINE were the top heavyweights of the 60s and 70s.

10. Toss-up between short-time champs like Terrell and Ingo, or flawed challengers like Lyle, Shavers or Young. None of them were really fixtures in the division during that period. (Just had a good year or two. Or were basically known more for a win here or there.) Chuvalo was a contender off and on in the ratings nearly the entire two decades, but only had one or two notable wins (Quarry and Doug Jones).

 

This...