10 best Heavies NOT to win the title...

[mickey malone]

Peter Jackson
Sam Langford
Harry Willis
Joe Jeanette
Sam Mcvey
Joe Choynski
Jimmy Young
Ike Ikeabuechi
David Tua
Ron Lyle
Earnie Shavers
Oscar Natalio Bonavena
Archie Moore
Billy Conn
Elmer Ray
George Godfrey
Luis Angel Firpo
Fred Fulton
Gerry Cooney

No order, but a good list of fighters who never were Heavyweight Champions.

Yes... Of course, you did a post about him recently.. Well I suppose it was off the cuff, & perhaps I'll alter my list in future.. Thanks 4 reminding me!

[mickey malone]

Young didn't quite get hold of the title, he was matched with Norton for the vacant title but got beat on points by a split decision.

He didn't do too bad Young in the 70s. Arguably should have got the nod over Ali by decision, knocked down and decisioned Foreman, beat Lyle twice, drew with Shavers and went the distance with Norton......hell of a fighter. May have been a legend in a different era.

Cheers! This is a brushing up thread for me.. The reason I wrote it, is because there's so many fighters that you read about or watch once or twice that tend to get forgotten or not often mentioned.. Many of them were really good, & Young certainly fits into this criteria..

[sonnyboyx2]

Young didn't quite get hold of the title, he was matched with Norton for the vacant title but got beat on points by a split decision.

He didn't do too bad Young in the 70s. Arguably should have got the nod over Ali by decision, knocked down and decisioned Foreman, beat Lyle twice, drew with Shavers and went the distance with Norton......hell of a fighter. May have been a legend in a different era.

No-way should Jimmy Young have got the decision over Muhammed Ali... Young tried to cheat his way to victory but Ali could read his plan, Ali won quite convincingly, i also though Young was very fortunate to get the nod over Foreman IMO he only won 2rds

[Kid McCoy]

No-way should Jimmy Young have got the decision over Muhammed Ali... Young tried to cheat his way to victory but Ali could read his plan, Ali won quite convincingly, i also though Young was very fortunate to get the nod over Foreman IMO he only won 2rds

I watched the Young-Foreman fight the other day. It was actually closer than I remembered, but I still thought Young won. He got jobbed so often back then he deserved to finally get the nod in a big one. I also thought he beat both Ali and Norton, which added to his two wins over Lyle and a draw with Shavers which most thought he won adds up to a pretty stellar resume.

I think Jimmy is well worthy of being on this list.

[sonnyboyx2]

I watched the Young-Foreman fight the other day. It was actually closer than I remembered, but I still thought Young won. He got jobbed so often back then he deserved to finally get the nod in a big one. I also thought he beat both Ali and Norton, which added to his two wins over Lyle and a draw with Shavers which most thought he won adds up to a pretty stellar resume.

I think Jimmy is well worthy of being on this list.

deliberately holding his head out of the ring so that Ali could not punch him, was Youngs game-plan against Ali

[Sugarj]

Hi Sonnybox, I personally didn't score the Ali fight to Young but many experts did. To be honest even those who scored it for Ali didn't think it was a good showing from him.....Ali was not on form that night, his heaviest ever (230 Lbs). He spent alot of time on the ropes clowning around and his accuracy and timing were not great that night.

As for Young vs Foreman, close fight for me, a very good one too! Foreman was great at points in the fight but was very ill afterwards and collapsed in the dressing room. He would have almost certainly been stopped if it were a fifteen rounder. If you only gave Young 2 rounds this seems very harsh and way out of line with most experts and fans assessments. Even if the fight was declared a draw that would be a great achievement for Young.

[StarshipTrooper]

Peter Jackson
Sam Langford
Harry Willis
Joe Jeanette
Sam Mcvey
Joe Choynski
Jimmy Young
Ike Ikeabuechi
David Tua
Ron Lyle
Earnie Shavers
Oscar Natalio Bonavena
Archie Moore
Billy Conn
Elmer Ray
George Godfrey
Luis Angel Firpo
Fred Fulton
Gerry Cooney

No order, but a good list of fighters who never were Heavyweight Champions.

Beat me to it: Excellent list!

Poet

[Kid McCoy]

deliberately holding his head out of the ring so that Ali could not punch him, was Youngs game-plan against Ali

How many times did Young do that? It was hardly part of the gameplan. I thought Young out-worked Ali in virtually every round, winning the fight on punches landed, defence and ring generalship. In any case, sticking his head through the ropes was no worse than Ali grabbing behind the neck to kill counter-punching.

[Stoppage]

It's a shame Langford didn't get a world title shot. I'm sure he would've won it. He would have been the shortest heavyweight champion of all-time and that's a great accomplishment.

[mickey malone]

Gary Mason is worth a mention.. Had nearly 40 fights with only one defeat to Lennox Lewis...