How Good were the past American champions, REALLY?

[MisterPullman]

Roy Jones Jr would've brutalized Gennady Golovkin, at any weight, but Klitschko would've been all bad for Ali (Ali being 3" shorter, having the shorter reach by ~4", being the smaller man by about 20 lbs, while not really being comfortable fighting on the inside and not having otherworldly power shrinks the different paths that Ali could've had to victory).

Still, history being what it is, it's not like there weren't any records of non-Americans that were fighting when Ali, Leonard, etc were fighting; BBBoC has records for the British heavyweight championship, and likely the rest of their weight classes, that go back to 1905. It may not be a complete history, but I'm pretty confident that there's logs for any fighter that was competing around the times in question.

People have had the conversation that you're seeking to restart here countless times before, with the only name that's consistently drawing notice being Teofilio Stevenson possibly being better than Muhammad Ali (how Stevenson would've transitioned into the professional ranks, in addition to how his discipline would've kept up as money started rolling in, will never be known but he had the raw material to have people wonder).

C'mon Scip what kind of crack you smokin

RJJ's chin was always flaky, GGG lands on him it's over.

[sicko]

Lets just say that NO OTHER COUNTRY will match their rich history in boxing...EVER! Yes that hurts some people I'm sure but it is the Truth.

America's History in boxing Speaks For Itself! It is really nothing left to prove, the rest have to try and CATCH UP!

[Doctor_Tenma]

Larry was so busy fooling around these last few days that his name just got took, damn

[Beercules]

With the rise of the NBA and the NFL all the top athletes are bypassing boxing to earn the big bucks elsewhere. This wasn't the case back in the 70s, when seven foot giants like Ali and Frazier dominated the division. Wait wut?

Beyoncé Bomber

[bigjavi973]

This got me thinking to the Ali's, the leonards, and all the rest.

Were these guys even real "world" champions? They only really had to compete with other americans

How good would Ali have been if he had to face a Klitschko?

[Scipio2009]

C'mon Scip what kind of crack you smokin

RJJ's chin was always flaky, GGG lands on him it's over.

That means absolutely nothing; no one landed anything on Roy, up until he bulked up to heavyweight for the John Ruiz fight, deciding to shred off 25 pounds to go back to light heavyweight.

With Golovkin's leeriness about weight being what it is, we're talking about 1996 Roy Jones Jr, just on the cusp of his move to light heavyweight from 168 (32-0, with lopsided wins over James Toney and Bernard Hopkins on his resume, into his second year as the best p4p fighter on the planet).

If you earnestly believe that Golovkin does anything, I can only ask what kind of crack are YOU smoking?

[The Gambler1981]

Jim Ross would never say that~

[-Kev-]

Give those past fighters some HGH when they're growing, so they can be taller, and give them PED's, then we'd be even. Ali at 6'9", imagine that, he would clown every HW in history

[1g5a22]

These days, pretty much no Americans are the best in the world, now granted they will try to feed us the crawfords, broners, wilders and the rest.

But since the UK has increased it's participation in boxing, with the eastern euro nations now dominating since they entered the pro game, and the emergence of cuba, American dominance is well and truly at an end.

This got me thinking to the Ali's, the leonards, and all the rest.

Were these guys even real "world" champions? They only really had to compete with other americans

How good would Ali have been if he had to face a Klitschko?

How good would Roy Jones have been if he had to face a Golovkin?

I think you're confused!