Your top fifteen American heavies.

atriot


My criteria is sort of a combination of "what have they done lately (as in, who did they beat recently - defined as 'within the last 5 years' for the sake of argument, since older accomplishments don't bear much relevance anymore)" and their perceived h2h value based on how they look in their performances against their best opposition win lose or draw.

1. Tony Thompson (wins over: Price x2, Solis x2, competitive losses to Pulev, Takam, Klitschko x2)
2. Bryant Jennings (wins over Perez, Szpilka, Fedosov, Liakhovich)
3. Deontay Wilder (wins over Stiverne, Liakhovich, Scott)
4. Bermane Stiverne (wins over Arreola x2, Manswell, Austin, decisive loss to Wilder and early stoppage loss to King)
5. Malik Scott (wins over Leapai, Tupou, unlucky in draw with Glazkov, stopped by Chisora & Wilder)
6. Steve Cunningham (wins over Mansour, Visinia, Quezada)
7. Andy Ruiz Jr.
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   (wins over Hamer, Liakhovich, Hanks, Quezada)
8. Kevin Johnson (wins over Haumono, Sosnowski, Leapai, losses to Fury, Chisora, Hammer, Charr, and Hamer)
9. Antonio Tarver (wins over Banks, Aguilera)
10. Andrey Fedosov
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    (wins over Wilson, Heaven, close loss on cuts to Jennings)
11. Chris Arreola (wins over Mitchell, Molina, pair of losses to Stiverne)
12. Charles Martin (wins over Flores, Thompson, Manswell, Zumbano Love)
13. Gerald Washington (wins over Tank, Walker, Scott, Aguilera)
14. Eric Molina (wins over Grano, Williamson, Zumbano Love, KO1 loss to Arreola)
15. Derric Rossy (wins over Muralimov, Walker, Hanks, losses to Pulev, close to Glazkov, Dawejko, Harrison, Oquendo and Harris)

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- both have in the last few years officially immigrated to and currently both legally reside & train full time in the United States. Ruiz and Fedosov represented their native Mexico and Russia in the amateurs but are now for all intents and purposes to be considered a Mexican-American and Russian-American pro respectively. If they don't count then neither does Haitian-Canadian import Stiverne.



Honorable mention to Michael Hunter (zero notable wins yet at 7-0 but passes the eye test and was an excellent amateur, losing to Artur Beterbiev in the Olympics by tiebreaker count-back, which is as close as it gets)

Dominic Breazeale is just beginning to step up, lagging behind the rest of the US Olympic class from 2012, currently topping out with a UD win over Nagy Aguilera and KO1 of Epi Mendoza in the former middleweight's twentieth loss. He takes on Victor Bisbal next. While he probably won't crack the upper half and IMO won't develop into a good enough fighter to beat anyone from 7-9 up, he will probably ease his way into fifteen soon enough, currently right on the bubble.

Other young bloods who may or may not pick up notable scalps in the near future include: Trey Lippe, son of Tommy Morrison, currently 6-0 (6); Donnie Palmer and LaRon Mitchell both with the same exact record as Lippe; Ed Latimore, 7-0 (5), who already has some names conquered like Fulton and Williams that, while not worth calling 'notable', usually don't spring up quite so early on most records...and the KO1 of Excell Holmes is declarative...

Guys that have been around the block a while and used to be top fifteen in the country in the division (and used to be a handful on a good night for most prospects or contenders) - guys like Travis Walker, Jason Estrada, Brian Minto, Jason Gavern, Fres Oquendo, Michael Grant, Johnathon Banks, Darnell Wilson, Oliver McCall, TOS Williamson, and Shannon Briggs - they just aren't worth even considering anymore. They either flat out aren't ever fighting live bodies at this point, or they're losing consistently whenever they do. None has recent notable wins. I left off Mansour as well. His best are Fred Kassi and Kelvin Price and while he makes for exciting TV (and was competitive in defeat to Cunningham) he isn't exactly a h2h killer to compensate for his lack of credentials to get him into a top 15.


For reference & comparison, here are Boxrec's current top 15 at HW in the US. (note they omit Ruiz & Fedosov in these rankings, still listing them under, respectively, "Mexico" and "Russia")

1. Deontay Wilder
2. Tony Thompson
3. Antonio Tarver
4. Bryant Jennings
5. Steve Cunningham
6. Bermane Stiverne
7. Chris Arreola
8. Malik Scott
9. Amir Mansour
10. Johnathon Banks
11. Fres Oquendo
12. Charles Martin
13. Gerald Washington
14. Derric Rossy
15. Eric Molina

What ever did happen to Seth Mitchell? :think

"Mitchell has not fought (or scheduled a fight) since the loss to Arreola, and the current status of his career is unknown."

- from his Wiki page.

GBP no longer has Mayhem on their long & seemingly exhaustive roster on their website. :conf

 

I didn't.

I named four, maybe five - at least, whittling it down to good US-born natural heavies. (so excluding foreigners Stiverne, Ruiz Jr. & Fedosov and blown-up old cruiser and light heavy Cunningham and Tarver) - Thompson, Jennings, Wilder, Scott and Johnson...three of whom are considered jokes for various reasons (Scott's lack of heart, Johnson's sparring partner mentality, Wilder's protected manufactured rise) and the best of whom is an elderly man with a pot belly.

Maybe in a couple years time we might see a better top five consisting of Jennings, Martin, Washington, Hunter and Breazeale or some yet-unknowns - but for now, ick.

 

I'm kind of torn on Fast Eddie Chambers.

On the one hand, if he is even 70% of his prime self anymore he is easily top 5 h2h in the country. We have no way of knowing that, however, based on him beating up tomato cans ever since he linked up with Team Fury.

Honestly you have to go back to Rossy II in 2011 for his last remotely notable win, and in the meantime have come a few losses including an embarrassingly one-sided rout by a diminutive Cruiser. :!:

 

:roll:

I'm not 'trying' to claim him. Boxrec has Stiverne listed under American. They're a British site.