My Top 10 Heavyweights of All Time

[jabsRstiff]

About Holyfield....

He is so hard to rank, as a heavyweight. He was very inconsistent.
He lost 2 of 3 to Bowe....lost 2 to Lewis. Split with Moorer. Struggled mightily with old Holmes & Foreman. Had a far more difficult time with Bert Cooper than a great heavyweight should.
A lot of his status at heavyweight is based on his defeat of Tyson. That's a tough one as well, because Mike Tyson was not only no longer in his prime, but is also the most overrated fighter in boxing history.
Holyfield is a question mark amongst heavyweight greats....but is undoubtedly great as a lb4lb fighter.
This was a guy who went from dominating the cruisers, to buildng himself into a heavyweight who had many successes in the age of truly big men.


JUYJUY....

What's with this "Catskills Tyson" ? Since when do fighters get ranked according to a SEGMENT of their career, & not the overall view ?
Yes.......nothing's more important than a viewing a fighter at his best, but a guy like Muhammad Ali was amazing at his best, & then still a WINNER years beyond his best. He was able to win major fights beyond his best because he was tough (physically & mentally) & incredibly intelligent inside the ring.
Mike Tyson showed to be a supreme frontrunner, & a clueless fool when things were less than perfect.

[KidBlackie]

[[[Lewis had enough trouble with Mercer. And Holmes two nemesis, Norton and Shavers, would make mince meat out of Lewis's opponents. Let's not under rate Holmes.]]]
======================

Glad you mentioned Norton. Norton was past prime when he gave Larry a life and death struggle and lost a split decision by a whisker. Did Larry ever think about a rematch? Nope.

Have you ever seen who Shavers lost to? He could be easily outboxed or outslugged. Shavers had a slugger's chance in all his bouts and made the most of a limited journeyman's career with his power. I would rank Holmes higher if he hadn't filled his title defenses with Frank, LeDoux, Rodriguez, Zanon or whoever he was, Marvis Frazier, Evangelista, ect just average heavies, not real contenders.

Yes Lewis did have some trouble with Mercer and Holmes beat him also, but let's remember that Mercer gave up his WBO belt before fighting Holmes and was obviously having personal problems. He had a lot of legal problems as well in his career and was a notorious hot and cold fighter.

Lewis' big weakness was a lack of focus and dedication to training in some of his fights. At their bests, I would take Lewis hands down. Worst to worst I'd still take Lewis. Maybe the best Holmes could take the worst Lewis.

[SnoopySmurf]

Glad you mentioned Norton. Norton was past prime when he gave Larry a life and death struggle and lost a split decision by a whisker. Did Larry ever think about a rematch? Nope.

Have you ever seen who Shavers lost to? He could be easily outboxed or outslugged. Shavers had a slugger's chance in all his bouts and made the most of a limited journeyman's career with his power. I would rank Holmes higher if he hadn't filled his title defenses with Frank, LeDoux, Rodriguez, Zanon or whoever he was, Marvis Frazier, Evangelista, ect just average heavies, not real contenders.

Yes Lewis did have some trouble with Mercer and Holmes beat him also, but let's remember that Mercer gave up his WBO belt before fighting Holmes and was obviously having personal problems. He had a lot of legal problems as well in his career and was a notorious hot and cold fighter.

Lewis' big weakness was a lack of focus and dedication to training in some of his fights. At their bests, I would take Lewis hands down. Worst to worst I'd still take Lewis. Maybe the best Holmes could take the worst Lewis.

Well, we can agree to disagree without calling each other names....unlike JuyJuy here.

[jabsRstiff]

correct another one with more knowledge than Mrs Eubank here.

Larry Holmes had an interesting history with the 7th rd.....
He was knocked down in the 7th rd. 3 separate times, by three separate fighters.
Kevin Isaac, Earnie Shavers, & Snipes. He came back to defeat all 3.


Snoop....
I remember the melee after the Snipes fight.....It was because the ref kinda made a quick call, & the Snipes camp was furious. I remember someone wound up getting cut (accidentally) with a pair of scissors, during it.
What was funny....in Holmes previous fight, he had a post-fight run-in with Gerry Cooney.
Holmes had just wiped out Leon Spinks, & was being interviewed by Howard Cosell, when Cosell decided to bring Cooney over.
Holmes, who believed it was HIS time, said..."Howard, if you bring him over here, I'm gonna slap him in his face."
Well, when Cooney approached...Holmes lunged at him, & did indeed give Gerry a slap. Cooney looked petrified, if not disgusted.
damn.....I don't think in all my years of following boxing (since '81) that any fight had the intense build-up of Holmes-Cooney.

[JUYJUY]

The Mike Tyson that left Rooney was a walking freakshow, a completely different fighter. Post-88 Tyson would be reduced to a very slim punchers chance against Louis, Ali, Holmes, Foreman, Frazier et al.

Tyson was TOO good because he achieved everything in just over three years while still a kid and had nothing more to prove after the Spinks fight, so he is a special case. Louis, Ali, Holmes, Foreman, Frazier etc they wouldn't of been able to win a world title at 20 years old and beat everybody in sight within 18 months. So Tyson is a special case I suppose.

And I'm ranking my list on Ability more than anything else.

[SnoopySmurf]

Snoop....
I remember the melee after the Snipes fight.....It was because the ref kinda made a quick call, & the Snipes camp was furious. I remember someone wound up getting cut (accidentally) with a pair of scissors, during it.

Yeah, they were cutting his tapes off when there was a scuffle. The thing about Holmes was that if he got dropped or hit hard, he would become enraged and pummel his opponents. Like when Tyson put him down, I expected Holmes to come back. But Holmes tried to counter with a big right, it got caught by the ropes! And Tyson was open for it! And took more punishment! Man, Holmes should have stayed retired. But with Foreman being back, he thought he could to.

[xzworks]

no lewis no tyson?