Which heavyweight champion had the best record in history and why?

[ricecrispi]

Has to be Ali, Joe louis, and Marciano. For reasons already stated above.

Marciano retired undefeated. His only loss are in his amateur career and confused the drunks who went to those fights and claimed they saw him lose a fight.

Joe Louis stated he would've never beat Marciano even in his prime. He hate fighting guys like Marciano and swarmer type style.

I don't think any heavyweight champ could beat Marciano.
You couldn't out point him by boxing. He beat some of the best boxers of his time. He couldn't see your punches, he'd run into it head first and break your hand.
You couldn't out slug him, that was his game.
Knock him out? No chance, he ate everything and crowed your space too much. If you got him on the mat he would get up.
Outwork him. He threw excess of 100 punches a round.
Thats why he was undefeated. He should've fought more but went through too many wars.

Thats why you can't mention Lennox Lewis in the same area as Marciano, Ali, or Louis. These guys never ducked fights. Fought with heart. They were tough. They were champs

[prtynacan]

Big guys could beat marciano - I think foreman, liston, Lewis and Ali all would've beaten the Rock. Gotta remember he was about 5'10", 185 and had a really short reach. These guys would just be too big for him. Of course, I consider the Rock a far greater champ than foreman, liston and Lewis based on dominance over his era and his heart. I never think it's good to judge fighters head to head from different eras based on the increased science in training and nutrition that allow boxers to reach new peaks in terms of conditioning, power and speed.

[RastaSmoker]

If i had to pick i would say Young Stribling. His record was 239-14-14 with 127 KOs . The thing that is most impressive to me is that he did this all in 12 years. Unfortunatly he was killed in 1933 in a motorcycle crash. If you do the math thats 1 fight every 17 days on average.

# of fights per year

1921 25 fights
1922 34 fights
1923 28 fights
1924 35 fights
1925 33 fights
1926 17 fights
1927 22 fights
1928 40 fights
1929 21 fights
1930 10 fights
1931 5 fights
1932 13 fights
1933 4 fights

[GOAT]

But did Marciano just retire at the top of his game? Was there anyone decent available to fight that he chose not to?

Floyd Patterson.

And Sonny Liston was making some serious noise already.

[NeoMorpheus]

I don't think any heavyweight champ could beat Marciano.
[/QUOTE]

This is an unfortunate, misguided opinion. Marciano would absolutely have been eaten alive by at least a dozen heavyweights in history. I absolutely can see how any of Ali, Louis, Foreman, Frazier, Holmes, Tyson, Lewis could beat Marciano during their primes - with some ease. If Walcott could outbox him for 13 rounds, imagine what a precision puncher like Holmes could do.

In so far as the topic is concerned, I think the best records in the heavyweight division belong to;

Ali
Louis
Holmes
Johnson
Lewis
Marciano

in that order.

Marciano had how many fights at championship level? 6/7? Against who exactly. He gets in through the backdoor of that list on the strength of having never lost.

[Slipx]

records really dont mean much

hence the gayness of this thread is maximized

look at castillo and johnson

esp old school fighters..back then they'd just throw the local tough guy in the ring..not like they were constantly putting down #1 contenders..

[Kid Achilles]

If Walcott could outbox him for 13 rounds, imagine what a precision puncher like Holmes could do.

Complete ignorance. Walcott was quicker than Holmes and sharp and cagey as hell. The only thing Holmes had on Walcott was a better chin and size. You act like it was this miraculous thing that JJW outboxed Marciano, on the level of Botha outboxing Tyson for several rounds*, when in fact Walcott outboxed most of the opponents he fought. If Walcott had an iron chin he would have been a top five heavyweight of all time.

[angelo_dundee]

Muhammad fought in the toughest and most competitive era ever for HW boxing, and he was a dominant champion. He beat the other great fighters of his era, (or won more against them then they did him), and for that alone he must be #1.

[leff]

marciano by a mile

[VEGADAMUS]

marciano because he was undefeated champ and no-one else has done that yet and it will be a long time before it is repeated

what he said