Top 10 Heavies from best to worst

[Sugar Adam Ali]

My personal top ten

1 ali
2 Holmes
3 lennox
4 evander
5 foreman
6 vitali
7 Frazier
8 tyson
9 louis
10 Wlad


Based on whatever I feel like,, deal with it

[boxingfan2015]

Agree bigtime with Lennox being one of the most under-rated heavyweight champs of all time, he had all the tools to give anyone problems, in any era.

[K-DOGG]

Alright, haven't made one of these in a while, so here goes...

As of February 24, 2015

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Joe Louis
3. Lennox Lewis
4. Jack Johnson
5. Larry Holmes
6. Jack Dempsey
7. Rocky Marciano
8. Evander Holyfield
9. Joe Frazier
10. George Foreman

[BKM-2010]

^My top 3 is the same. I merely question Dempsey's placement being too high while Foreman is too low. Elaboration would be cool.

[K-DOGG]

^My top 3 is the same. I merely question Dempsey's placement being too high while Foreman is too low. Elaboration would be cool.

George is where he is because of limited success as a champion and against ranking contenders. The only names of note he defeated were then-champion Frazier, Ken Norton, Ron Lyle, and Michael Moorer. In fact, I only rank him that highly because of the extraordinariness of his comeback.

Dempsey is where he is because he was the first of his kind, the modern fighter. His style, the way he bobbed and weaved, threw punches in combinations, attacked with skill, yet with seeming reckless abandon changed the game. Before Dempsey, fighters still had that "toe the line" fighting stance from the bare-knuckle days. Dempsey tore their heads off, so the game evolved.

He destroyed Willard, a feat no one expected cause no one had come close and not even Firpo accomplished afterwards in the same manner. He destroyed most of the best contenders of his day on the way to the title. Men like "Big"Bill Brennan, Fred Fulton, Battling Levinski, who was a respected veteran of maybe more than 250 fights off the record. He outboxed slick Billy Miske on the way to the title before Billy became ill and Jack gave the man a decent payday out of compassion. He showed he was superior to a pretty good Light Heavyweight champ in Carpentier and outboxed Tommy Gibbons when he proved to clever to be stopped. And had a Hagler-Hearns type war with Luis Angel Firpo, something you never see at heavyweight.

All in all, Jack Dempsey was one of the greatest of all time and given a fair chance, meaning the same training opportunities as any modern fighter, at 6' 1" I feel he could potentially beat any man who ever lived, so great was his ability, and determination.

Hell, I'm not so sure a 189 lb Dempsey couldn't wreak havock among today's giants.

[f15bone]

1. Cassius Clay: total skill set was unmatched...
2. Larry Holmes: chin, size, IQ, & heart...Perhaps the best pure heavyweight BOXER of alltime...
3. Lennox Lewis: intimidating size, huge punch, underestimated skill set...
4. Vitali Klitchko: size, power, chin, tough out for anyone...Even the above mentioned....
5. Mike Tyson: in his prime...one of a kind...coulda been higher...
6. George Foreman: power, power, & more power...
7. Jack Johnson: nasty, superbly conditioned, good mix of speed & power...
8. Joe Louis: accurate & powerful...
9. Jack Dempsey: one of the innovators of a new Era in technique...
10. Marciano: tough, incredible will, power, clutch...

Just on the outside lookin in: Wlad, Frazier, Holyfield, Liston, Norton, Sullivan, Jeffries

[BKM-2010]

George is where he is because of limited success as a champion and against ranking contenders. The only names of note he defeated were then-champion Frazier, Ken Norton, Ron Lyle, and Michael Moorer. In fact, I only rank him that highly because of the extraordinariness of his comeback.

Dempsey is where he is because he was the first of his kind, the modern fighter. His style, the way he bobbed and weaved, threw punches in combinations, attacked with skill, yet with seeming reckless abandon changed the game. Before Dempsey, fighters still had that "toe the line" fighting stance from the bare-knuckle days. Dempsey tore their heads off, so the game evolved.

He destroyed Willard, a feat no one expected cause no one had come close and not even Firpo accomplished afterwards in the same manner. He destroyed most of the best contenders of his day on the way to the title. Men like "Big"Bill Brennan, Fred Fulton, Battling Levinski, who was a respected veteran of maybe more than 250 fights off the record. He outboxed slick Billy Miske on the way to the title before Billy became ill and Jack gave the man a decent payday out of compassion. He showed he was superior to a pretty good Light Heavyweight champ in Carpentier and outboxed Tommy Gibbons when he proved to clever to be stopped. And had a Hagler-Hearns type war with Luis Angel Firpo, something you never see at heavyweight.

All in all, Jack Dempsey was one of the greatest of all time and given a fair chance, meaning the same training opportunities as any modern fighter, at 6' 1" I feel he could potentially beat any man who ever lived, so great was his ability, and determination.

Hell, I'm not so sure a 189 lb Dempsey couldn't wreak havock among today's giants.

I completely disagree. You seem to rank impact on the sport very highly yet Tyson isn't in your top 10 despite being the second most famous boxer ever amongst many other similar accomplishments. There were more pioneers before Dempsey too, but purely looking at resume I feel that Dempsey could easily be ranked outside the top 10 while Foreman has a relatively easy case for top 5.

Frazier twice, Norton, Lyle, Chuvalo stoppage and Moorer(circumstantial) alone are some amazing wins that I feel only few men can match record-wise, certainly not Frazier who you rank above him plus two of his most notable losses were to ATG's who were given tough fights by the man. Plus he has the amazing feat of oldest HW champion ever for the cherry on top.

[K-DOGG]

I completely disagree. You seem to rank impact on the sport very highly yet Tyson isn't in your top 10 despite being the second most famous boxer ever amongst many other similar accomplishments. There were more pioneers before Dempsey too, but purely looking at resume I feel that Dempsey could easily be ranked outside the top 10 while Foreman has a relatively easy case for top 5.

Frazier twice, Norton, Lyle, Chuvalo stoppage and Moorer(circumstantial) alone are some amazing wins that I feel only few men can match record-wise, certainly not Frazier who you rank above him plus two of his most notable losses were to ATG's who were given tough fights by the man. Plus he has the amazing feat of oldest HW champion ever for the cherry on top.

While impact on the sport is important, the meat of my list is based on in-ring accomplishments against relative opposistin, or Tyson would rank in my/Top 10.

However, Tyson peaked in prison with his most respectable wins over Tony Tucker, an almost shot Pinklon Thomas, Tony Tubbs, Frank Bruno, an old Larry Holmes, and Donovan Ruddock. Unfortunately for Mike, while his list of wins is decent, when he had his moment of greatness, as every true great has....he failed....thrice.

While no one will argue Mike wasn't in top shape against Douglas,/the fact is he self-destructed when things were just getting interesting in the heavyweight divisision. Now, historically this had happened once before...sort of. Muhammad Ali was at the top of his game when he got robbed of three years and had to come back. Competition was much better in the 70's than in the 60's

Conversely, when Mike went to prison, new bloods were making waves and we all awaited the return of the king. This was the environment of expectation.

Evander Holy field was a no-hoper when he signed to right Mike the first time....everyone thought he was shot, so his win really bolstered his reputation. Mike had his opportunity for greatness in the rematch. A sure fire shot to immortality in/a war to rival Ali vs Frazier's Thrila in Manilla. THIS....was the perception.

You know what happened.

Simply put, all of the fighters in my Top Ten had a moment like that, a moment which immortalized them forever in story and song.

Biting a man's ear off and getting disqualified in your moment does not make that cut of cuts. There is no evidence that any form of Mike Tyson would have had what it took to comefrom behind and overcome in that moment when legends are born except when he decked Douglas n the eighth.

Maybe he could have. He certainly had the ability, the talent; but when put to the test, the big test, he failed. That is why he is not in my Top Ten. He does rank at 14, though, which is still quite respectable. One does not make the Top of the class on potential or "what could have been"......but what was.

Of other notes, simply put, Frazier ranks above Foreman because he reigned as champion longer and won The Fight of the Century in most dramatic fashion.

And BTW, Chuvalo was considered past his best when big George stopped him, still a respectable when; but Gregria Peralta was a tougher test.

[BKM-2010]

However, Tyson peaked in prison with his most respectable wins over Tony Tucker, an almost shot Pinklon Thomas, Tony Tubbs, Frank Bruno, an old Larry Holmes, and Donovan Ruddock. Unfortunately for Mike, while his list of wins is decent, when he had his moment of greatness, as every true great has....he failed....thrice.

While no one will argue Mike wasn't in top shape against Douglas,/the fact is he self-destructed when things were just getting interesting in the heavyweight divisision. Now, historically this had happened once before...sort of. Muhammad Ali was at the top of his game when he got robbed of three years and had to come back. Competition was much better in the 70's than in the 60's

Conversely, when Mike went to prison, new bloods were making waves and we all awaited the return of the king. This was the environment of expectation.

Evander Holy field was a no-hoper when he signed to right Mike the first time....everyone thought he was shot, so his win really bolstered his reputation. Mike had his opportunity for greatness in the rematch. A sure fire shot to immortality in/a war to rival Ali vs Frazier's Thrila in Manilla. THIS....was the perception.

You know what happened.

Simply put, all of the fighters in my Top Ten had a moment like that, a moment which immortalized them forever in story and song.

Biting a man's ear off and getting disqualified in your moment does not make that cut of cuts. There is no evidence that any form of Mike Tyson would have had what it took to comefrom behind and overcome in that moment when legends are born except when he decked Douglas n the eighth.

Maybe he could have. He certainly had the ability, the talent; but when put to the test, the big test, he failed. That is why he is not in my Top Ten. He does rank at 14, though, which is still quite respectable. One does not make the Top of the class on potential or "what could have been"......but what was.

Of other notes, simply put, Frazier ranks above Foreman because he reigned as champion longer and won The Fight of the Century in most dramatic fashion.

And BTW, Chuvalo was considered past his best when big George stopped him, still a respectable when; but Gregria Peralta was a tougher test.

I only mentioned Tyson in one sentence, calm down. You don't have to treat me like I'm one of those Tyson fanboys.

While impact on the sport is important, the meat of my list is based on in-ring accomplishments against relative opposistin, or Tyson would rank in my/Top 10.

Actually the first paragraph you dedicated to Dempsey here is based on impact as we see below:

Dempsey is where he is because he was the first of his kind, the modern fighter. His style, the way he bobbed and weaved, threw punches in combinations, attacked with skill, yet with seeming reckless abandon changed the game. Before Dempsey, fighters still had that "toe the line" fighting stance from the bare-knuckle days. Dempsey tore their heads off, so the game evolved.

I disagree with some of that too btw, as I believe the man who gave him a thorough boxing lesson twice(Tunney) was the 'first modern fighter' or closer to that.

Now back to Dempsey, his record truly is mediciore compared to the other greats, I don't believe anybody could ever make an argument to rank him as highly as you did when you truly base your rankings on level op opposition.

You spend a lot of time discrediting Tyson and Foreman's opponents calling them past their prime. But not once did you mention the fact that jess Willard was coming off a 3+ year layoff against Dempsey, underestimated him and looked nothing like his old self against a declining Jack Johnson. This is where you lose factual credibility and show that you fall into the line of historians who rate Dempsey on merit of his fame and legends about him.

There's also the issue with Dempsey's inactivity and that he didn't fight(or ducked)a couple of great fighters of his time. This hurts his placement as well. Dempsey's record is simply not good enough. Ranking him based on ability and impact on the sport creates contradictions and inconsistencies like when I mentioned with Tyson as an example.

And again, the fact that Foreman destroyed Frazier twice has to count for something especially when these two were in the same era and it's relatively close. I don't think I've ever seen somebody rank Joe above George.

Sorry, I like your top 5 but the rest I find terrible placement especially Dempsey and Frazier

[K-DOGG]

I only mentioned Tyson in one sentence, calm down. You don't have to treat me like I'm one of those Tyson fanboys.



Actually the first paragraph you dedicated to Dempsey here is based on impact as we see below:


I disagree with some of that too btw, as I believe the man who gave him a thorough boxing lesson twice(Tunney) was the 'first modern fighter' or closer to that.

Now back to Dempsey, his record truly is mediciore compared to the other greats, I don't believe anybody could ever make an argument to rank him as highly as you did when you truly base your rankings on level op opposition.

You spend a lot of time discrediting Tyson and Foreman's opponents calling them past their prime. But not once did you mention the fact that jess Willard was coming off a 3+ year layoff against Dempsey, underestimated him and looked nothing like his old self against a declining Jack Johnson. This is where you lose factual credibility and show that you fall into the line of historians who rate Dempsey on merit of his fame and legends about him.

There's also the issue with Dempsey's inactivity and that he didn't fight(or ducked)a couple of great fighters of his time. This hurts his placement as well. Dempsey's record is simply not good enough. Ranking him based on ability and impact on the sport creates contradictions and inconsistencies like when I mentioned with Tyson as an example.

And again, the fact that Foreman destroyed Frazier twice has to count for something especially when these two were in the same era and it's relatively close. I don't think I've ever seen somebody rank Joe above George.

Sorry, I like your top 5 but the rest I find terrible placement especially Dempsey and Frazier

Apologies for going overboard on the Tyson thing. If I had a dollar for every time I had to explain it, I would have been to Bermuda by now.

You are correct with Willard, of course. I didn't mention the Tunney eighty because Dempsey was coming off of three years of inactivity and was obviously past his best. Jack could have definitely bolstered his merits if he had fought and defeats Harry Wills, George Godfrey, or even an old Sam Langford on the way to the title, I will/concede. However, in the wake of the "horror" of Jack Johnson's reign, I find it understandable, albeit disappointing, that the Wills fight, nor the Godfrey fight never happened. And hell, everybody avoided Langford, sad as that is the man was just too great. I've had him in my Top Ten from time to time....always catch flack for it.

Still, I can understand why you feel the way you do.

Incidentally, I wouldn't put to much emphasis on Foreman beating a 225 lb post Manilla Frazier. He was done and that fight had hype going in.....but that wasn't Smoking' Joe. Wouldn't have made any difference, as Frazier's style was made for Foreman, in my opinion; but Joe was done before he shaved his head for that fight.

To each his own, though.