Who is the greatest of all time? Larry Holmes Lennox Lewis Vitali or Tyson Fury?

[ShaneMosleySr]

Foreman knocked out Joe Frazier twice and knocked out Ken Norton. He also won the heavyweight championship at 45.

Lol @ Foreman, with like 4 title fight wins being ranked over Wladimir who has been in more HW title fights than any other HW in history.

['b']

At least this is a h2h battle when you say 'greatest'.

Honestly, Lennox, Vitali and Holmes in a h2h beat Fury. Prime Wlad would beat Fury.

Fury is a big fish in a little pond, the HW division was considered a joke under Wlad so what does that make this gen? AJ was the new king, PROOF that the HW div is STACKED etc. but he went life and death with an old man. Fury is a PED cheat and fought an old out of prime Wlad.

[boliodogs]

Any one before Larry cant be in the same league as bigger more modern guys as good as someone like Ali was he couldnt deal someone like Lennox Lewis, who just has too many attributes on him, sure Ali could take his power for a while, but he couldnt deal with his power, range, skill, speed size strength etc etc etc all together.

So sure he can beat a very powerful guy like foreman or a very skilled guy and so on but the bigger modern guys just have too many of these "attributes" in one human, even Ali I believe could not compete. Although admittedly he is a freak and I could be wrong but you get the point the further back it goes the more doubt there is over whether they could compete with the very elite* in the modern era.








So who is the best EVA?

None of them.

[boliodogs]

I don't think Fury belongs with Vitali, Holmes and Lewis. He is not as good as they are. He is big but big heavyweights have always been around and they are seldom the best. You are too carried away with bigness. Dempsey only weighed 180 pounds when he KOed 6 ft 6 inch 250 pound Willard to win the title. A skilled guy like Joe Louis at 200 pounds can chop down the biggest heavyweight. Ali was about the same size as Holmes. Fury may be huge but he is not a big puncher. Lewis in shape was 230 pounds. He was a bit fat at 245. Lewis was knock cold twice in his prime by guys who where not that good. I don't think your top four are a sure thing to beat the great smaller heavyweights of the past. Of your top 4 I like Vitali the best. I thought he would have KOed Lewis if he had not been cut. He was a hell of a puncher with an iron jaw and a good boxer as well.

[MastaBlasta]

Lewis lost to two guys 6”2.
Holmes lost twice to a 6”2 light heavyweight.
Fury has been dropped by a 6”3 Cruiserweight.

And apparently a 6”3 lighting fast and supremely skilled Ali “couldn’t deal” with these guys.����

Prime Ali dismantles Fury and Lewis, fairly easily. People who weren't around to see and appreciate have no idea how strong Ali was. He also was a master strategist. He would have those guys figured out and know where and when to hurt them most. Ali also could take a punches these guys could never have taken. He would have out-trained these guys and had more endurance.

Ali seriously came close to fighting Wilt Chamberlain (7'-1" who boxed all during his youth and twenties). Even though Wilt had more reach than these modern guys could dream about (and he stated that Ali would not get by his jab), Wilt also declined to follow through and actually fight. Ali was confident he would have remedies for Wilt's size and reach, and was as vocal as ever that he would teach Wilt a lesson.

I'm sure that neither Lennox nor Vitali would have stood much of a chance with Wilt. I doubt they would have even tried. Neither guy ever considered fighting Valuev for instance.

[MastaBlasta]

Its not out of the question I have to admit Ali was incredible but there are doubts there could he really deal with a prime Lennox Lewis? Tyson? Bowe? How can he beat those guys?

Its too much to ask they are the next generation skill wise building on the previous generation and they are bigger longer stronger athletes etc

Its not that he couldnt deal with the power of Tyson or the skill of Lennox Lewis he can but there are so many other virtuous traits that the modern guys have as well on top of these that it gets a bit silly to expect Ali to be able to compete.

Take Lennox its bad enough that he has a similar skill level, then add to that, better range, similar speed, lots of power and weight, more height, etc and you have something that I believe is "too much" for Ali to realistically deal with. Each additional asset is kind of a big deal.

None of them could match Ali's endurance and raw training. Ali fought 15 round fights. Most of the newer guys can barely make 12. All of them take major time off during a fight. Ali would smoke each of them during that time off shiet, due to his superior endurance (in his prime).

[MastaBlasta]

With his superior skills, speed, footwork etc. The Ali thar tore through the HW division in the mid 60’s is a nightmare for any of those guys. Evander Holyfield gave all 3 of those guys trouble purely down to having good fundamentals and great resilience/toughness/stamina.

Absolutely correct.

[MastaBlasta]

1. Joe Louis
2. Muhammad Ali
3. George Foreman
4. Larry Holmes
5. Rocky Marciano
6. Jack Johnson
7. Jack Dempsey
8. Joe Frazier
9. Lennox Lewis
10. Wladimir Klitschko

Prime Mike Tyson has to be in there somewhere.

[Curtis Harper]

We can easily get rid of that last name

Holmes is the GOAT of the remaining 3.

[MastaBlasta]

Lol @ Foreman, with like 4 title fight wins being ranked over Wladimir who has been in more HW title fights than any other HW in history.

Wlad's era was pedestrian competition. He would've been stopped had he fought his brother. Yes he had a long reign and a lot of title fights ... against guys that would've been destroyed by the middle and lower end guys of Ali's era. The Shavers, Lyles, Norton, Terrell, Liston, Williams, etc. I would even give Gerry Cooney a fair chance to beat Wlad.

We won't even start with Joe Louis fighting these guys.

"Louis fought thirteen times in 1935. The bout that helped put him in the media spotlight occurred on June 25, when Louis knocked out 6'6", 265-pound former world heavyweight champion Primo Carnera in six rounds." - Wiki

Size doesn't determine anything.Most of todays guys (and people in general) are bigger due to hormones given to "meat" animals in our food chain.