Greatest small heavywieghts of all time

[fullcontact2320]

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 ,

[Benny Leonard]

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.

[-Antonio-]

Floyd Patterson was a gold medalist at 160 right?

[sterling]

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

[Benny Leonard]

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.

[TheGreatA]

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.

[Zerwas1]

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

[Benny Leonard]

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.

[Scott9945]

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".

[GearsOfWar]

Mike Tyson deserves this award, I couldn't see him beating a lennox or vitali because of the reach advantages they would have over him, but I feel that he might be able to beat wlad because wlad lets some of his opponents get to close to him at times and wlads chin is not that great. But tysons speed was amazing at one time even though his resume is filled with bums just like vitalis resume is filled with alot of bums because both fought in bad eras and or just ended up with fighting not the elites of all time.

Mikes the man