Comments Thread For: Recent Heavyweight Momentum Warrants Generational Perspective

[Oregonian]

By Lyle Fitzsimmons - I'm in a heavyweight state of mind. And given the recent deluge of big men carrying gaudy belts, it's no coincidence. WBC kingpin Deontay Wilder vaporizes Luis Ortiz with a single right-hand shot one weekend, then Anthony Joshua regains his position as "governor" of the division according to Eddie Hearn, at least with a...
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Why bother mentioning one-hit wonders?
Hasim Rahman? Seriously? This guy was a joke.

[Monty Fisto]

I'd rate Vitali Klitschko much higher than that. He was on par or better than Lewis in their match (too bad for the cut) and I rate Lewis as possibly the greatest ever.

Then there are many others, from previous eras, like Dempsey and Marciano, that imo are to be included in the top 15.

Present top 2 (Wilder and Fury) are to be considered, but for totally different reasons. Wilder is very effective. Fury is a master of boxing.

AJ is none of these two. He's a terrific athlete, who decided to compete in boxing. He's also very committed and does his homeworks.

Rather than AJ I'd pick Usyk, who's another real master of the technique.

I don't recall Dempsey and Marciano being considered consensus no.1 since 1969.

Fury is a master of self promotion. He has you calling him a master of boxing, yet he sc****d a win against total nobody Otto Wallin. And I'm still not sure why that fight wasn't stopped in Wallin's favour. A fighter with a cut that large and deep being allowed to carry on for so many rounds seems unprecedented.

A fighter with zero defences of the heavyweight title should make no all-time list.

[DeeMoney]

Seems like the criteria moves around a lot from fighter to fighter. Joe Frazier is a 'solid pro' but only has one decent fighter on his resume (Ali) so he is out of the top 10.

Yet Bowe is in there for his work in a 6 month span, despite his non-Holyfield resume.

[BoxingVirus25]

Small boxers are being admired more when they beat bigger guys.

[SteveM]

Larry Holmes was underrated, where is Ken Norton ? Gave a prime Holmes hell and lost split decision, beat the greatest heavyweight ever Ali and lost 2 questionable decisions to Ali.

Frickin ' Lyle Fitzsimmons - I can't pay much creedence to his boxing knowledge as he just pure and simple has wacky off-beat opinions and poor research - exactly as you mention with Ken Norton.

APART FROM THAT ........... he claims to be entering his seventh decade but if he was born in 1969 he is 50 and entering his SIXTH friggin decade - - the guy is just lame!

And then he has this thing going where he is keeping tabs on how many matches he predicts and he trumpets 4-0 - ffs it was 3 heavy favorites and a strong favorite in Joshua. Anyone can predict that shit. Stick to predicting 50/50 fights like Hurd / Williams and then tally up your predictions in those - If you are 60-65% right on thse then you are on to something.

Then, he won't comment on WBA secondary belt title fights but he will comment on obscure IBO title fights at minimum weight.

Just get more real.

[SteveM]

Fewest Punches Landed - 12 Round Title match. This giant hunchback Tyson Fury is massively overrated, this openhanded ranking comes off two horrible performances : an all-time low compubox record against a washed active HOF way past his prime, and getting dropped/arguably KO vs. Deontay Wilder.

How can anyone seriously rank this clown in the same company of greats based off his pitiful resume and controversial performances ?

Don't be mad at Lyle Fitzsimmons - he is soft in the head. Proof being that he missed out Ken Foreman completely and rates Mike Tyson below Fury and Wilder. Prime Mike obliterates any version of Fury, Wilder and Joshua.

[SteveM]

Seems like the criteria moves around a lot from fighter to fighter. Joe Frazier is a 'solid pro' but only has one decent fighter on his resume (Ali) so he is out of the top 10.

Yet Bowe is in there for his work in a 6 month span, despite his non-Holyfield resume.

Smokin Joe went up against some of the same contenders as Ali, George Chuvalo, Oscar Bonavente, Buster Mathis, Jerry Quarry, Jimmy Ellis.

I guarantee most of these guys would be top ten now and would wipe the floor with the likes of Takam, Andy Ruis, Kownacki, Pulev, etc. THIS WAS THE GOLDEN AGE OF HEAVYWEIGHTS!!

Joe also fought and beat Bob Foster who is top ten LHW ever.

And then to say he went 1-4 with 70's Foreman and Ali is like crapping on Tommy Hearns for losing to Hagler and SRL.

[boxing IQ]

This is hilarious. So, in this writer's opinion, we're supposed to believe Anthony Glass Jawshua is better than Vitali Klitschko and Joe Frazier? Lmao that's funny

[Baba K]

This guy said Bowe was the GOAT from Nov 92 - May 93...six whole months! (ha ha ha ha ha) I guess Ruiz was too...low standards much?

[Baba K]

Oh yeah...and besides beating arguably the greatest heavyweight fighter in the history of the world, who ELSE did Frazier beat?

Dude is a professional writer so it's really not for me to say that was a dumb statement...but...