Greatest Heavyweights of The Past 20 Years

[DeepSleep]

Ross Puritty stopped Wlad as you know.
He also drew with Tommy Morrisson which is in your list , knocking him down twice in two separate rounds in the process .
Puritty lost to Corrie Sanders by decision , which is better than what Wlad did against him. Even Vitaly went down against Sanders.
He also went the distance against Rahman which is better than what Sanders did , and lasted longer against Vitaly losing only because of cuts which is again bettter than what Sanders did.
He knocked out Joe Hipp who also lost to Tommy Morrisson but was actually very close to stop him himself. I think it was a question of the doctor pick a winner because had the doctor examined Morrisson first , he would have decided that Morrisson was unable to continue as well , something like a double TKO.
Puritty did better than that.
Puritty achieved more than Morrisson who is in your list.
Now you explain Morrisson and Mercer .

Morrison is 48 - 3 with wins over Ruddock(Albeit Old), Foreman and Pinklon Thomas.

Mercer is 38 - 7 with wins over Morrison and Witherspoon, not top ten material in my opinion but is still a quality fighter.

Purrity is 31 - 20 with losses to every major name on his resume(Chambers, Dimitrenko, Vitali, Byrd, Donald, Sanders, Grant, Rahman) except the questionably chinned Wlad before Steward turned him into a machine. 21 of his 31 wins come against fighter's with a losing record or no boxrec record at all and has losses to some all time greats such as Atilla Levin, Timo Hoffman, Eliser Castillo, Brian Nielson, Will Hinton, King Ipitan, Derek Isaman, John Sargent, Cleveland Woods and last but not least Alexander Miroshnichenko. If you honestly believe Purrity is even a top 50 HW of the last 20 years you most likey had one too many disco biscuits this weekend because your head is in the clouds.

[frankenfrank]

Morrison is 48 - 3 with wins over Ruddock(Albeit Old), Foreman and Pinklon Thomas.

Mercer is 38 - 7 with wins over Morrison and Witherspoon, not a top ten material in my opinion but is still a quality fighter.

Purrity is 31 - 20 with losses to every major name on his resume(Chambers, Dimitrenko, Vitali, Byrd, Donald, Sanders, Grant, Rahman) except the questionably chinned Wlad before Steward turned him into a machine. 21 of his 31 wins come against fighter's with a losing record or no boxrec record at all and has losses to some all time greats such as Atilla Levin, Timo Hoffman, Eliser Castillo, Brian Nielson, Will Hinton, King Ipitan, Derek Isaman, John Sargent, Cleveland Woods and last but not least Alexander Miroshnichenko. If you honestly believe Purrity is even a top 50 HW of the last 20 years you most likey had one too many disco biscuits this weekend because your head is in the clouds.

Puritty has so many losses because he avoided no one and is the opposite of being a protected fighter. Morrisson was much more protected than him.
You also did not compare Puritty's nature of losses to Morrisson's .
And what do you have to say about Morrisson barely managing to last the distance in a gift draw fight against such a lousy opponent ?
And then comes Mercer : who did he beat except of Morrisson ?
Well , he does have 1:1 with Fergusson , or should it be regarded 0:2 ?
Mercer was a lesser journeyman than Puritty was.

[mickey malone]

Morrison is 48 - 3 with wins over Ruddock(Albeit Old), Foreman and Pinklon Thomas.

Mercer is 38 - 7 with wins over Morrison and Witherspoon, not a top ten material in my opinion but is still a quality fighter.

Purrity is 31 - 20 with losses to every major name on his resume(Chambers, Dimitrenko, Vitali, Byrd, Donald, Sanders, Grant, Rahman) except the questionably chinned Wlad before Steward turned him into a machine. 21 of his 31 wins come against fighter's with a losing record or no boxrec record at all and has losses to some all time greats such as Atilla Levin, Timo Hoffman, Eliser Castillo, Brian Nielson, Will Hinton, King Ipitan, Derek Isaman, John Sargent, Cleveland Woods and last but not least Alexander Miroshnichenko. If you honestly believe Purrity is even a top 50 HW of the last 20 years you most likey had one too many disco biscuits this weekend because your head is in the clouds.

As you can see, DeepSleep got to it first, and has stated more or less the same as I would.. Both Mercer and Morrison may not be everyone's top 10 but both piss all over Purrity in terms of achievement.. Purrity may have been the 1st to expose a green Wlad, but it wasn't even a good KO.. Wlad simply gassed and fell over under Purrity's clumbsy assaults.. I'd have less argument with Brewster or Sanders because at least they scored clean KO's over a fitter and more experienced version of Klitschko..

[mickey malone]

Puritty has so many losses because he avoided no one and is the opposite of being a protected fighter. Morrisson was much more protected than him.
You also did not compare Puritty's nature of losses to Morrisson's .
And what do you have to say about Morrisson barely managing to last the distance in a gift draw fight against such a lousy opponent ?
And then comes Mercer : who did he beat except of Morrisson ?
Well , he does have 1:1 with Fergusson , or should it be regarded 0:2 ?
Mercer was a lesser journeyman than Puritty was.

Would Purrity be able to take Lennox Lewis to a split decision?

[DeepSleep]

Puritty has so many losses because he avoided no one and is the opposite of being a protected fighter. Morrisson was much more protected than him.
You also did not compare Puritty's nature of losses to Morrisson's .
And what do you have to say about Morrisson barely managing to last the distance in a gift draw fight against such a lousy opponent ?
And then comes Mercer : who did he beat except of Morrisson ?
Well , he does have 1:1 with Fergusson , or should it be regarded 0:2 ?
Mercer was a lesser journeyman than Puritty was.

Purrity has only 10 wins over fighter's with a winning record the other 21 come against fighter's with a losing record hardly a brutal schedule.

How can he be avoided when he fought and lost to everyone good such as Chambers, Dimitrenko, Vitali, Byrd, Donald, Sanders, Grant, Rahman and lost to no namers like Atilla Levin, Timo Hoffman, Eliser Castillo, Brian Nielson, Will Hinton, King Ipitan, Derek Isaman, John Sargent, Cleveland Woods and Alexander Miroshnichenko? He lost alot because he was not that good, good fighter's have more than 1 good win which Purrity does not have.

I already said I don't think Mercer is top ten material but the notion that Ross Purrity is better than the olympic gold medalist is pretty laughable.
Mercer beat Morrison and Witherspoon and more importantly didn't lose almost every fight he had against opponents who at least won the majority of their fights.

Mercer beat plenty of journeymen without too much trouble while Purrity lost to almost every journeyman he ever fought. Why are you harping on Mercer's loss to Ferguson when Purrity has about 10 or so losses that are either comparable or worse.

Care to explain how the tenth best heavyweight of the last 20 years lost to;

Atilla Levin, Timo Hoffman, Eliser Castillo, Brian Nielson, Will Hinton, King Ipitan, Derek Isaman, John Sargent, Cleveland Woods and Alexander Miroshnichenko

Couldn't beat any of the big namers such as;

Chambers, Dimitrenko, Vitali, Byrd, Donald, Sanders, Grant, Rahman

And how the majority of his wins come against either bums or guys with no pro record(20 of 31 wins against either fighters with no pro record or a losing record)?

I'm not going to lie Mercer wasn't that great but at least he managed to beat the journeymen put infront of him and not gobble up all his wins off bums that guys at my gym could light up like the fourth of July.

[CarlosG815]

1/. Riddick Bowe
2/. Mike Tyson
3/. Evander Holyfield
4/. Buster Douglas
5/. Ike Ibeabuchi
6/. Lennox Lewis
7/. Wlad Klitschko
8/. Vitali Klitschko
9/. George Foreman
10/. Larry Holmes

What did Tyson do in the 90's to rank #2 and be ahead of Holyfield?

I can't make a list, but if you ask me I would say Evander and Bowe would be the top guys, followed by Lennox Lewis, Byrd, etc...

[sonnyboyx2]

What did Tyson do in the 90's to rank #2 and be ahead of Holyfield?

I can't make a list, but if you ask me I would say Evander and Bowe would be the top guys, followed by Lennox Lewis, Byrd, etc...

The topic question: "Who do you believe was the best?
so IMO i listed the fighters who i feel was the best over the last 20yrs and in the order which i feel on their best night they would have been rated.. you ask why Mike Tyson at No2 ahead of Holyfield and what did he do to deserve that position on my list... Mike Tyson IMO had several very very impressive performances during the 1990s he twice destroyed Razor Ruddock breaking Razors jaw, cheekbone & eye-socket giving Ruddock a career-ending beating which left him only a shell of the fighter he was before those two beatings..Tyson brutally butchered Alex Stewart who was ranked No3 in the world and who`s record was 26-1(26)KOs who`s only defeat had been a cuts stoppage in 8rds to Holyfield, yet Tyson destroyed Stewart in the opening round...Tyson KOd undefeated Buster Mathis Jr. who Riddick Bowe had struggled with, he knocked out 2 current reigning World Heavyweight Champions taking less than 4rds to annihilate both of them, one being Frank Bruno who had gave Lennox Lewis the toughest fight of his career and had beaten Lewis conqueror Oliver McCall..Tyson also hammered Frans Botha, Lou Savarese & Andrew Golota breaking Golota`s jaw he also became the only fighter to travel to Norway and beat Brian Neilson in his backyard... Tyson lost 2 fights with Evander Holyfield yet their 1st fight was one of the ATG heavyweight fights in history with Tyson putting up a tremendous performance even tho he was "Butted out of it".. That fight in November 1996 was the last fight of Mike Tysons career from then onwards Mike was turning up for the money only... could Holyfield have beaten Mike Tyson in 1991 we will never know.

[JAB5239]

Lewis
Holyfield
Wlad
Bowe
Byrd
Ruiz
Tyson
Vitaly
Morrison
Foreman

[pacmanny1]

1- Lennox
2- Holyfield
3- Wladimir
4- Bowe
5- Vitali

...noone else comes close

[mickey malone]

Lewis
Holyfield
Wlad
Bowe
Byrd
Ruiz
Tyson
Vitaly
Morrison
Foreman

1. Lewis
2. Holyfield
3. Bowe
4. Vitaly
5. Tyson
6. Wlad
7. Mercer
8. Byrd
9. Morrison
10. Foreman

Some similarities to my good self there, old buddy!

The only stand out difference being, that I prefer Mercer to Ruiz.. Ruiz was the greater achiever of the two, and I will own up to being a big admirer of Mercer.. He's definitely my type of fighter, and I regard him as a less skilled HW version of Duran.. The KO of Morrison is a candidate for top 10 most brutal of all time, and his performance agaist Lewis was exceptional in a fight, where he was on the bones of his arse (financially) and had trained himself in a ****ty little gym somewhere.. That fight really put him on the map, but due to his own age & inconsistency, put in a poor performance against an aging Holmes.. I think Mercer Ruiz would be an even money fight tbh, and would depend on which version of Ray turned up, but at his best he was a nightmare for anyone..

I really wanted to add Ibeabuchi too, but I'm often arguing against those who never had enough fights, so it wouldn't be right.. But it will always be my belief that he'd have cleared up, had he not had issues away from boxing..
Tua, i've rated at no10 in the past, but i'm on here to learn and other posters have convinced me on some of his short comings.. A superb puncher with a good chin, but not an A listed boxer..
Some may go for Moorer, but he beat a sick Holyfield and got iced by Foreman, so I don't think he qualifies..