Top 5 all time greatest heveyweights.

[Silence]

Resume: Ali
Title defense: Louis
H2H: Fury/Lewis

[mrbig1]

I know that this topic has been extensively debated and appreciate its difficult to compare boxers from different eras, however should someone like Tyson Fury be considered top 5?
Joe Lewis is often regarded as the second best heavyweight in history but does anyone really think he would have beaten Lennox Lewis, Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder (taken into account weight and reach advantage).
Rocky Marciano is also often considered top 10 but with a reach of 170cm and weight of under 200lb surely no one would suggest that he would beat someone like Fury.
Therefore what makes a top 5 all time great is it legacy or how they would compare against boxers from other eras?
If the later what would your top 5 be?

You're looking at it wrong. There are high school kids who can run faster than Jesse Owens. Does that mean he's not great? At the time Owens was the fastest man in the world. Could Louis beat Fury? If we put Louis here today with the diet and training. Now were talking about a 235-pound Louis with the same speed and more power. Yes, he would clean out the division today.

[Mr Giggles]

Lennox Lewis is CLEARLY number one. Even Emmanuel steward the greatest trainer of all time said it

[Ghost Jab]

I am not on board with the popular argument that Fury & Lewis beat all the heavyweights of yesteryear just because they’re taller & stronger. Bigger also means slower. More time for brain signals to travel. More mass to move & control. Bigger fists means that the punching force is spread out over a larger surface area, and hence less potent.

How many of you remember when Wilder was undefeated, and fans were saying he’d KO Ali in one round? Cause I remember people saying that, and I laughed at them.

My head-to-head Heavyweights list is as follows:

1. Muhammad Ali - I’m not one of the boxing fans who views Ali as a sort of god. But he was truly something special. The speed and vitriol he used when fighting off the ropes was a sight to behold (third Frazier fight being a prime example).

2. Joe Louis - In my opinion, he was everything good about Deontay Wilder as a fighter, packed into a more compact frame, blessed with quicker hands, and free of the flotsam & jetsam and questionable skills of the much larger man. Watch some of his old fights and see how fighters just go down when he lands. To borrow a Deontayism, “it’s like cutting through cheese!!”

to round out my top five, we’ve got…

3. Rocky Marciano

4. Mike Tyson (prime, obviously)

5. A near tossup between Holyfield, Frazier, and Foreman. I’m going to give it to Holyfield.

Honorable mentions:

Lennox Lewis, Tyson Fury, and the Klitschkos cluster between #8 and #20, in that general order.

If Usyk retired today, he’d be near the Klitschkos. Higher if he does more, like beating Fury.

[miniq]

The 5 Pioneers:

Jack Johnson
Joe Louis
Muhammad Ali
Lennox Lewis
Tyson Fury

Ahead of their time, although Lennox & Fury were right on time. We won't see another Fury for a long time though.

[QueensburyRules]

I know that this topic has been extensively debated and appreciate its difficult to compare boxers from different eras, however should someone like Tyson Fury be considered top 5?
Joe Lewis is often regarded as the second best heavyweight in history but does anyone really think he would have beaten Lennox Lewis, Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder (taken into account weight and reach advantage).
Rocky Marciano is also often considered top 10 but with a reach of 170cm and weight of under 200lb surely no one would suggest that he would beat someone like Fury.
Therefore what makes a top 5 all time great is it legacy or how they would compare against boxers from other eras?
If the later what would your top 5 be?

- - I'd start by not asking U.

And it's Joe Louis, the greatest ever. Fury blubbered wif MTK fraud.