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By that logic, Dempsey, Louis, and Marciano should be on the list and higher than Ali as they consistently beat larger opponents then themselves.
Ali should not even make the top ten as he had a size advantage against most of his opponents, or at worst was an equal weight to them.
To say that P4P lists should exclude heavyweights is as shortsighted a comment I've heard regardless of your definition of P4P. Think of it this way: Louis and Dempsey proved themselves to be p4p better than almost any smaller fighter by actually knocking out top fighters who had 50 or more pounds on them. Look what happened when SRR, one of the greatest fighters ever, attempted to move from middleweight to light heavyweight, a 15 pound jump. I'ts not easy to beat guys who are both good and much bigger than you and many heavyweights did it. In fact, the heavyweight division is one of the ONLY divisions where a fighter can prove his "p4p worth" by fighting much heavier men. That is, if that's your definition of the term.
In fact, Fitzsimmons, Dempsey, and Louis would all have to be in your top five all time p4p lists as they all beat much, much larger men than themselves, which is apparently your definition of p4p if you're going to exclude the big heavyweights.
Or you could do what makes sense, include heavyweights, and have p4p be a list of the guys who best dominate their division, regardless of what it is.
I mean, hell, Hearns and Monzon shouldn't even be top ranked p4p guys either since they had sizeable height advantages on their opponents, right? By your logic.
Look, P4P these days is meant to be used as a level playing field to see who best dominates their division. To exlude heavyweights is just ridiculous. I don't think many heavyweights should be included, as most heavyweights just aren't that dominate for very long before they get picked off in a division where one good punch can spell doom for anyone. But to say that Ali, Marciano, Dempsey, Holmes, and Louis, dominating the heavyweight division as they did, were not p4p greats is just absurd. I'm not saying they all belong on the top ten, I don't think they do, but you can't exclude someone from the list for fighting in the heavyweight division.
Ali should not even make the top ten as he had a size advantage against most of his opponents, or at worst was an equal weight to them.
To say that P4P lists should exclude heavyweights is as shortsighted a comment I've heard regardless of your definition of P4P. Think of it this way: Louis and Dempsey proved themselves to be p4p better than almost any smaller fighter by actually knocking out top fighters who had 50 or more pounds on them. Look what happened when SRR, one of the greatest fighters ever, attempted to move from middleweight to light heavyweight, a 15 pound jump. I'ts not easy to beat guys who are both good and much bigger than you and many heavyweights did it. In fact, the heavyweight division is one of the ONLY divisions where a fighter can prove his "p4p worth" by fighting much heavier men. That is, if that's your definition of the term.
In fact, Fitzsimmons, Dempsey, and Louis would all have to be in your top five all time p4p lists as they all beat much, much larger men than themselves, which is apparently your definition of p4p if you're going to exclude the big heavyweights.
Or you could do what makes sense, include heavyweights, and have p4p be a list of the guys who best dominate their division, regardless of what it is.
I mean, hell, Hearns and Monzon shouldn't even be top ranked p4p guys either since they had sizeable height advantages on their opponents, right? By your logic.
Look, P4P these days is meant to be used as a level playing field to see who best dominates their division. To exlude heavyweights is just ridiculous. I don't think many heavyweights should be included, as most heavyweights just aren't that dominate for very long before they get picked off in a division where one good punch can spell doom for anyone. But to say that Ali, Marciano, Dempsey, Holmes, and Louis, dominating the heavyweight division as they did, were not p4p greats is just absurd. I'm not saying they all belong on the top ten, I don't think they do, but you can't exclude someone from the list for fighting in the heavyweight division.
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