Top 10 Heavies from best to worst

[Burning Desire]

Size is not a factor here. It's a level playing field where all eras are on the same level. Moreover I consider the Cruiserweight division to be illegitimate: I'm an "old school eight" guy and I pretty much ignore the Super and Junior divisions. Too many fans today are size obsessed. My view is that Heavyweights have gotten larger just as people in general have gotten larger and any objective matchup has to take that into account and norm the weights. People do this when comparing the seven footer loaded NBA team of today with the NBA teams of the 60s with no one over 5'9". Why should it be any different with boxing?

Poet

I respect older fighters Poet, but i honestly feel guys like Lewis and Bowe would be too much for the fighters of the early 1900s. Your talking about 50 pound's difference atleast, i don't take no notice of Heavyweights now what i meant by my comment is the Hw's of the 90s 80s 70s. I mean most of the HW's in early 1900s were boxing with a very old style of boxing that would not work with the elite HW's of the 70s 80s 90s. It doesn't mean i don't think they were great for there time of course they were but the size would play a big part in these match ups, Plus new training techniques etc.

[-CANE-]

I respect older fighters Poet, but i honestly feel guys like Lewis and Bowe would be too much for the fighters of the early 1900s. Your talking about 50 pound's difference atleast, i don't take no notice of Heavyweights now what i meant by my comment is the Hw's of the 90s 80s 70s. I mean most of the HW's in early 1900s were boxing with a very old style of boxing that would not work with the elite HW's of the 70s 80s 90s. It doesn't mean i don't think they were great for there time of course they were but the size would play a big part in these match ups, Plus new training techniques etc.

See what you're trying to say but have to agree with poet. It's also the techniques you have to consider as well.

Jack Johnson,Joe Jeanette,Harry Wills were all great in their time, but to matchup against Tyson or another modern fighter try and picture them growing up in that era and they would likely be slighter bigger and have trained a lot better and had been more technical which evens the fights up.

P.S. Poet have you run the round robin yet, can't wait to see the results.

[StarshipTrooper]

I respect older fighters Poet, but i honestly feel guys like Lewis and Bowe would be too much for the fighters of the early 1900s. Your talking about 50 pound's difference atleast, i don't take no notice of Heavyweights now what i meant by my comment is the Hw's of the 90s 80s 70s. I mean most of the HW's in early 1900s were boxing with a very old style of boxing that would not work with the elite HW's of the 70s 80s 90s. It doesn't mean i don't think they were great for there time of course they were but the size would play a big part in these match ups, Plus new training techniques etc.

Well, my point is as the general population has gotten larger so have Heavyweights. If you took Lennox Lewis and had him born in say 1910 and fighting in the 1930s he would undoubtably be smaller. Conversly if you take Joe Louis and had him born in say 1980 and fighting in the 2000s he would undoubtably be larger. Also a Lewis in the 1930s would not have access to modern fighting techniques while Louis in the 2000s would.

Ps. Did you know that James Jeffries prime fighting weight was 225?

Poet

[StarshipTrooper]

P.S. Poet have you run the round robin yet, can't wait to see the results.

I have! On both progams. I'm in the process of organising the results into a readable form I can past on here.

Poet

[Burning Desire]

Well, my point is as the general population has gotten larger so have Heavyweights. If you took Lennox Lewis and had him born in say 1910 and fighting in the 1930s he would undoubtably be smaller. Conversly if you take Joe Louis and had him born in say 1980 and fighting in the 2000s he would undoubtably be larger. Also a Lewis in the 1930s would not have access to modern fighting techniques while Louis in the 2000s would.

Ps. Did you know that James Jeffries prime fighting weight was 225?

Poet

If i remember right he only weighed 227 when he fought Jack Johnson i believe. Other than that, he was always below 220 except when he fought Corbett when he was 220. Which leads me to believe he was not in the greatest shape when he fought Johnson.

[StarshipTrooper]

If i remember right he only weighed 227 when he fought Jack Johnson i believe. Other than that, he was always below 220 except when he fought Corbett when he was 220. Which leads me to believe he was not in the greatest shape when he fought Johnson.

Jeffries, I believe, had ballooned up to over 300 pounds during his retirement. He lost the weight in a very short period of time, much like Riddick Bowe did before the second Golota fight.

Poet

[them_apples]

I respect older fighters Poet, but i honestly feel guys like Lewis and Bowe would be too much for the fighters of the early 1900s. Your talking about 50 pound's difference atleast, i don't take no notice of Heavyweights now what i meant by my comment is the Hw's of the 90s 80s 70s. I mean most of the HW's in early 1900s were boxing with a very old style of boxing that would not work with the elite HW's of the 70s 80s 90s. It doesn't mean i don't think they were great for there time of course they were but the size would play a big part in these match ups, Plus new training techniques etc.

dude I totally agree, I've been trying to say that all along but it always results in flame wars.

[Hawkins]

Ps. Did you know that James Jeffries prime fighting weight was 225?

Poet

Jeffries had the body to take on any era. He was a monster back in the day. He was strong, quick and tough as nails. He's very underrated today.

[-CANE-]

Jeffries had the body to take on any era. He was a monster back in the day. He was strong, quick and tough as nails. He's very underrated today.

He was massive, didn't he have one of the biggest chests in heavyweight boxing. 55in or something, I don't know how that compares to recent heavies such as Tyson,Holy,Lewis and the Klitchkos.

[The Iron Man]

Damn i used to have this site which told u all the heavyweight champs measurements!!

On my travels i found this..seems others have done the excel spread sheet for the heavies

http://coxscorner.tripod.com/heavyweightchart.html

for those who cant/wont read it heres the table :


1-2 Louis
1-2 Ali
3 Holmes
4 Johnson
5 Dempsey
6-7 Jeffries
6-7 Tyson
8-9 Liston
8-9 Lewis
10-11 Marciano
10-11 Frazier
12-13. George Foreman
12-13. Evander Holyfield
14-15. Riddick Bowe
14-15. Gene Tunney
16-17. James J. Corbett
16-17.Ezzard Charles
18-20.Max Schmeling
18-20.Jersey Joe Walcott
18-20.Floyd Patterson