Which one these fighters belong in the top 20 heavyweights?

[WillieWild114]

Earnie Shavers,Floyd Patterson,Buddy Baer,Max Schmeling,Jersey Joe Walcott,Gene Tunney,Tyson Fury or Ken Norton do they all deserve a spot or some need to drop.

[Bronson66]

Earnie Shavers,Floyd Patterson,Buddy Baer,Max Schmeling,Jersey Joe Walcott,Gene Tunney,Tyson Fury or Ken Norton do they all deserve a spot or some need to drop.

Tunney.

[Kid Cauliflower]

Top 20 for what? Who beats who? Or do you mean for all reasons combined? Gotta know to say.

[Kid Cauliflower]

You could do it that way, head to head. Most people go by resume.

I don't know what they go by and I don't know if they do either.

[Willow The Wisp]

Total body of work is the proper way to rank.
I have....

Gene Tunney, # 11
Tyson Fury, # 19
Ken Norton, # 22
Jersey Joe Walcott, # 39
Max Schmeling, # 42
Earnie Shavers, # 44
Floyd Patterson, # 59

Very, very elite professionals, all.

Buddy Baer I place lower. Did you mean his Brother Max?

[WillieWild114]

Total body of work is the proper way to rank.
I have....

Gene Tunney, # 11
Tyson Fury, # 19
Ken Norton, # 22
Jersey Joe Walcott, # 39
Max Schmeling, # 42
Earnie Shavers, # 44
Floyd Patterson, # 59

Very, very elite professionals, all.

Buddy Baer I place lower. Did you mean his Brother Max?

Why wouldn’t Ken Norton be top 20 after he beat Ali ?

[DeeMoney]

Total body of work is the proper way to rank.
I have....

Gene Tunney, # 11
Tyson Fury, # 19
Ken Norton, # 22
Jersey Joe Walcott, # 39
Max Schmeling, # 42
Earnie Shavers, # 44
Floyd Patterson, # 59

Very, very elite professionals, all.

Buddy Baer I place lower. Did you mean his Brother Max?

If total body of work is the way to rank, then how does Tunney end up 11 for you all time? He has 7 total fights in the heavyweight division, and only a few of those were against high quality opponents.

Unless by total body of work you are transposing his Lt Heavyweight work onto his heavyweight ranking?

[GhostofDempsey]

Patterson, Schmeling, Walcott.

[Willow The Wisp]

Why wouldn’t Ken Norton be top 20 after he beat Ali ?

He did beat Ali. Some even argue that he did it 3 out of 3. Part of that is the fact that Norton simply "had his number", and while Norton had a stellar career and body of work, his handling of Ali stylistically, was clearly the centerpiece of his work.
But nobody would suggest that Norton was as good as Ali because of that.
The reason I place Kenny at 22 is dues strictly to the total body of work, in comparison, compiled by:

1. Muhammad Ali, USA
2. Joe Louis, USA
3. Jack Dempsey, USA
4. Jack Johnson, USA
5. George Foreman, USA
6. Larry Holmes, USA
7. Lennox Lewis, England
8. Sonny Liston, USA
9. Mike Tyson, USA
10. Sam Langford, USA
11. Gene Tunney, USA
12. Harry Wills, USA
13. Rocky Marciano, USA
14. Joe Jeanette, USA
15. Joe Frazier, USA
16. Oleksandr Usyk, Ukraine
17. Wladimir Klitschko, Ukraine
18. James J. Jeffries, USA
19. Tyson Fury, England
20. Ezzard Charles, USA
21. John L. Sullivan

And keep in mind this.
The micrometers between these top all-time fighters can't even be "seen" with the naked eye.

Being ranked 22, for example; from a pool of 44,930 all-time big boys is a pretty lofty compliment.

[Willow The Wisp]

If total body of work is the way to rank, then how does Tunney end up 11 for you all time? He has 7 total fights in the heavyweight division, and only a few of those were against high quality opponents.

Unless by total body of work you are transposing his Lt Heavyweight work onto his heavyweight ranking?

As you know, when Tunney elected to retire following his title defence against # 3 Ring ranked Tom Heeney, and his marriage to Polly Lauder, he was already a billionaire, adjusted to inflation in today's dollars. He'd beaten the great Dempsey twice, Harry Greb, a top competitor against heavyweights, thrice; and top rated contenders Tommy Loughran, Battling Levinsky, Herb Crossley, Paul Samson Koerner, Martin Burke, Charley Weinert, Jack Renault, Chuck Wiggins, Jimmy Delaney, Harry Foley, Erminio Spalla, Georges Carpentier, Tom Gibbons, Bartley Madden and Johnny Risko, in an age when the leap from lightheavyweight to heavyweight was no more than a shot of courage; Tunney had done his bit, completely. If he'd stayed on and beaten Max Schmelling, Jack Sharkey, George Godfrey, Paolino Uzcudun, Knute Hansen, Jack Dorval, Arthur DeKuh, Phil Scott, Vittorio Campolo, Jimmy Maloney and the others available at the time, it would be more of the same.

Tunney was far more than the dancing master who befuddled Dempsey. Tunney was a vicious fighter who brought it.