Who are the greatest small heavywieghts of all time? wieght and hieght
i personally think evander holyfield because he came up 2 wieght classes and always fought like he was bigger then the person in front of him when he was always out wieghed and fighting taller guys in a brutal style.
Mike tyson would be my next choice but since he lost twice to evander i would have to go with the real deal.
Also i dont believe people think evander was 6ft 2 he was just about mike tysons hieght imo.
Also i put james toney up there because of his ability not to get knocked the fuck out when hes only 5ft10 plus hes gt a gd chin and power to come up from super middle without losing it.
Marciano fought fighters around his size, if not smaller when they started. He never faced a legit 200+ pound HW.
Tyson, he fought bigger fighters, but his best win really is against Spinks for legacy, who started at LH, although a HOF LH, and undefeated, still a LH who put on weight to be 200+. He also burnt out by 23. Although still, much greater than Marciano since fighting fighters 6'3+ and 230+ is hard to do.
Sam Langford might be my choice, although I've seen only the youtube videos of him. His record and articles is the only thing I can really go on and the fact that Dempsey's manager said kindly "no" for him to fight Dempsey.
Jack Johnson wasn't to big and he defeated all the top black fighters and white fighters until he was old and shot.
Louis also fought bigger fighters so I'm surprised he wasn't put on the list.
I'll have to think about it, but Sam is at the top right now.
He was big for the time, hence the nickname "Galveston Gaint"
Tyson wasn't that small. He was short but weighed like from 210 to 235 in his career, a lot more than most of these other boxers who fought similar sized opposition too.
He was one of the shortest successful heavyweights though, his reach is shorter than Mayweather's.
Yup, and had to eat/bulk up to where he finally got. Underrated fighter. Match fighters his own weight, and bring it on.
He was blown out by 210+ pound monster Sonny Liston...so what.
I was once lucky enough to talk to Floyd on a call in show. I asked him if he regretted not being the great lightheavy he could have been. Patterson said that he'd "rather be a good heavyweight than a great lightheavyweight". I then asked him if he regretted never getting the chance to fight Marciano. Without hesitating, he simply said "no".
Some small heavyweights:
Bob Fitzsimmons (3-division champ)
Sam Langford (very small)
Jack Dempsey (most of the fighters in his time were the same size but he did destroy the much bigger Jess Willard)
Joe Louis (same as dempsey, destroyed bigger men)
Billy Conn (almost beat Louis)
Ezzard Charles (started out as a MW and beat Louis for the HW title)
Archie Moore (not really successful as a HW but fought the best of his era)
Rocky Marciano (most of the fighters were his size though)
Floyd Patterson (natural mw fighting hw's)
Jerry Quarry
Joe Frazier (not that small)
Michael Spinks (beat Holmes and knocked out Cooney)
Mike Tyson (not small but short)
Evander Holyfield (was 205 against Bowe and 210 for most of his career)
Toney/RJJ (MW's that went up)
Not all of them were that small, successful or even full-time heavyweights but just some names to think about.
It's a real nice list to think about, good job. I would put Joe Choynski on there to think about as well as long as we are talking about historical listing instead of with our own eyes.
Jack Johnson and Joe in jail after there fight, in which Joe Ko'd Jack. Jack would become a better fighter (as the story goes) because of Joe's teaching him during their short prison time.
http://www.pbs.org/unforgivableblackness/sparring/images/photo_choynski.jpg
The old fighters didn't have so much tall competition, by todays standards they are light-heavy weights.
Holyfield came up from a lighter weight, but was much taller than Tyson and soon enough bigger.
my choice is Tyson, you got to give it to him
Some small heavyweights:
Bob Fitzsimmons (3-division champ)
Sam Langford (very small)
Jack Dempsey (most of the fighters in his time were the same size but he did destroy the much bigger Jess Willard)
Joe Louis (same as dempsey, destroyed bigger men)
Billy Conn (almost beat Louis)
Ezzard Charles (started out as a MW and beat Louis for the HW title)
Archie Moore (not really successful as a HW but fought the best of his era)
Rocky Marciano (most of the fighters were his size though)
Floyd Patterson (natural mw fighting hw's)
Jerry Quarry (consistently fought bigger opposition and came out on top)
Joe Frazier (not that small)
Michael Spinks (beat Holmes and knocked out Cooney)
Mike Tyson (not small but short)
Evander Holyfield (was 205 against Bowe and 210 for most of his career)
Toney/RJJ (MW's that went up)
Not all of them were that small, successful or even full-time heavyweights but just some names to think about.
Floyd Patterson was a gold medalist at 160 right?
Yup, and had to eat/bulk up to where he finally got. Underrated fighter. Match fighters his own weight, and bring it on.
He was blown out by 210+ pound monster Sonny Liston...so what.
Marciano fought fighters around his size, if not smaller when they started. He never faced a legit 200+ pound HW.
Tyson, he fought bigger fighters, but his best win really is against Spinks for legacy, who started at LH, although a HOF LH, and undefeated, still a LH who put on weight to be 200+. He also burnt out by 23. Although still, much greater than Marciano since fighting fighters 6'3+ and 230+ is hard to do.
Sam Langford might be my choice, although I've seen only the youtube videos of him. His record and articles is the only thing I can really go on and the fact that Dempsey's manager said kindly "no" for him to fight Dempsey.
Jack Johnson wasn't to big and he defeated all the top black fighters and white fighters until he was old and shot.
Louis also fought bigger fighters so I'm surprised he wasn't put on the list.
I'll have to think about it, but Sam is at the top right now.
agreed totally sam is one of my favourite fighters
Rocky hands down he was always listed as being 5'10 or 5'11, but my grandfather met him and said he was only a little taller then him and my grandfather was like 5'6 or rocky prob around 5'8, also Angelo Dundee said he was under 5'10 so i think rocky was the best small Hw, plus every is always billed taller or heavy then they really are, hell burt sugar said on t.v that tyson was only around 5'9 not 5'11 ,
How is Rocky greater than Tyson or especially Sam Langford?
What about Holyfied?
And despite losing, Chris Byrd should have a mention.
And for height, sometimes people think someone is taller or smaller than they really are. It happens with me all the time, people thinking I'm taller than I really am. Even weight as well.
You also have to factor in what are the shoes the person(s) are wearing.
Rocky hands down he was always listed as being 5'10 or 5'11, but my grandfather met him and said he was only a little taller then him and my grandfather was like 5'6 or rocky prob around 5'8, also Angelo Dundee said he was under 5'10 so i think rocky was the best small Hw, plus every is always billed taller or heavy then they really are, hell burt sugar said on t.v that tyson was only around 5'9 not 5'11 ,
Marciano fought fighters around his size, if not smaller when they started. He never faced a legit 200+ pound HW.
Tyson, he fought bigger fighters, but his best win really is against Spinks for legacy, who started at LH, although a HOF LH, and undefeated, still a LH who put on weight to be 200+. He also burnt out by 23. Although still, much greater than Marciano since fighting fighters 6'3+ and 230+ is hard to do.
Sam Langford might be my choice, although I've seen only the youtube videos of him. His record and articles is the only thing I can really go on and the fact that Dempsey's manager said kindly "no" for him to fight Dempsey.
Jack Johnson wasn't to big and he defeated all the top black fighters and white fighters until he was old and shot.
Louis also fought bigger fighters so I'm surprised he wasn't put on the list.
I'll have to think about it, but Sam is at the top right now.
You can't edit a poll, but a mod could.
dam that sucks well if a mod sees my poll edit it by puttin in jack dempsey,floyd patterson and rocky marciano.