Top 10 Heavies from best to worst

[StarshipTrooper]

I don't remember posting a top 10, I don't really believe in top 10 ATG lists that much and i'd always change it, but it could be fun sometimes and I don't want to be boring I'll go with greatness alone:

1-Muhammad Ali
2-Joe Louis
3-Rocky Marciano
4-Larry Holmes
5-Jack Dempsey
6-Jack Johnson
7-Lennox Lewis
8-George Foreman
9-Jim Jeffries
10-Mike Tyson

Liston, Holyfield, Frazier, Tunney, Walcott and Charles would pop in there all the time if I made a list every few weeks.
Best: Louis, Ali

Worst: Spinks, Ruiz

Favorite: Tyson

Underrated: Patterson(Great fighter, never seen him mentioned in a Top 10 list, not even in the Heavyweights)

Patterson is a favorite of mine but he typically gets downgraded because of his chin. Favorite moment: The leaping left hook that iced Johansson in their second fight.

Poet

[butterfly1964]

I don't know if I posted this, but...

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Sonny Liston
3. George Foreman
4. Mike Tyson
5. Joe Louis
6. Larry Holmes
7. Jack Johnson
8. Joe Frazier
9. Jack Dempsey
10. Lennox Lewis

11. Rocky Marciano
12. Rid**** Bowe
13. Evander Holyfield
14. Floyd Patterson
15. Ezzard Charles
16. Jersey Joe Walcott
17. Gene Tunney
18. Jim Jeffries
19. Ken Norton
20. Sam Langford

[brownpimp88]

Evander Holyfield has beaten 7 lineal heavyweight champs, on top of that he has wins over michael dokes, pinklon thomas and ray mercer. He should be on the list based on that resume.

[-CANE-]

Evander Holyfield has beaten 7 lineal heavyweight champs, on top of that he has wins over michael dokes, pinklon thomas and ray mercer. He should be on the list based on that resume.

Well I started the thread and if I remember correctly, I had him on the list at no.5. Try reading the first page.

[LondonRingRules]

Evander Holyfield has beaten 7 lineal heavyweight champs, on top of that he has wins over michael dokes, pinklon thomas and ray mercer. He should be on the list based on that resume.

** He also lost to 3 lineal champs and 2 non lineal champs, including one of the worst "champs" ever, Ruiz. Holy's heavyweight record is 24-8-2 fixing to be 24-9-2. Gotta take the good with the bad.

[-CANE-]

To all that have posted on this thread. I will probably change my list in the next week or so. I am currently about to do some reasearch on all the major champions. I want to try and come up with a way to find the greatest heavyweight champions, NOT as fighters or in head to head matchups but in what they achieved as champions. I am gonna take 16 to start off with and will have different criteria such as career record, length of reign(s), title defenses, champions fought (which will take into account that today there are more champions, so more likely to fight one), % of wins, % by ko, % of wins in title fights, % by ko, and so one. I will input all of this onto a spreadsheet. Most of the criteria I have selected is FACTUAL STATS however there will be a few that are subjective such as Impact,Quality of Opposition and maybe a few more. I want everyone's help and input on this. Any criteria you think that should be included or not, Factual or Subjective, also I need a way of coming up with a points scoring system in each category that is fair, so at the end I can total all the points up from each category and see who scores the highest thus finding out who is the greatest. I was going to score them 1 to 16, 16 being the highest because there will initially be 16 champions to sort through. So for example on title defenses Joe Louis would score 16 because he had the most and Sonny Liston 1 because he had the least of the champions I selected. But that doesn't seem fair. Maybe each category will have to have a different way to be scored, that's why I want everyone's input. So let me know what criteria you think needs to be included and how to score that particular criteria for the 16 boxers. I hope everyone is following this. Look forward to hearing your replies.

[mickeyb]

how's that list coming along?

[-CANE-]

I have now done my research on 16 champions to start off with.
I have taken into account their achievments as champions and done my list accordingly. Just because I have someone at no16 it doesn't mean I don't think they were not better or could not beat the fighters above them. This list is greatest champions on what they acheived and how they affected the sport. I have taken the following as my criteria:-
1>Total years as champions (Factual)
2>Number of defenses (Factual)
3>Number of times they became champion (Factual)
4>Quality of opposition (Subjective)
5>Impact on the sport (Subjective)

I have devised my own system for scoring points in each of the 5 catagories as fair as I could and then added up the points to find the greatest champion.
I was surprised at how my list had changed from the original.

My Original list:-
1> Muhammad Ali
2> Larry Holmes
3> Lennox Lewis
4> Joe Louis
5> Evander Holyfield
6> Jack Johnson
7> George Foreman
8> Rocky Marciano
9> Joe Frazier
10>Mike Tyson

My new greatest list of heavyweight champions:- (I will use the same system for the champions I have not yet included and will update my list at a later date)

1> Muhammed Ali
2> Joe Louis
3> Lennox Lewis
4> Larry Holmes
5> Evander Holyfield
6> Mike Tyson (scored same as Holyfield, but his 2 losses give EH 5th spot)
7> George Foreman
8> Joe Frazier
9> Jack Johnson
10>Rocky Marciano
11>Jack Dempsey (scored same as Marciano, but RM unbeaten so gets 10th)
12>Floyd Patterson
13>James J. Jeffries
14>Tommy Burns
15>Ezzard Charles
16>Sonny Liston

[BKM-]

That's pretty good. Figuring that some of them had such a huge impact on the sport(making it higher to the list because of that) it's no surprise they could be Top 5, 10 "greatest" Champions. And the other important factors as well, some score higher in one catory than the other. I guess it still comes down to opinion but I'd say you did a really good job. I might use this list in the future when the greatness of heavyweights is discussed.

[The Iron Man]

Tysons First Reign : 10 Defences. 2 time champ

Lewis'2nd Reign : 9 Defences. 3 time Champ

Holyfiled Longest Reign : 3 Defences. 4 time champ

Im also going to add Dominance of Era.

Years as champion - Im taking into account how many times they were champ as well, as to be honest a five time champ in holy has 7 years and 3 time lewis has the same counts for more, tysons 2 years as champ are more than half of holyfields 5!.

Tyson: 4 years 8mths
Lewis:7 years
Holyfield:7years 1 mnth


Quality, of opposition is mainly the same as they were around the same era, althought it could be argued that Tyson didnt fight Bowe or Tua. But The others didnt fight spinks. So i will to be fair give tyson 2 and lewis and holy 3.


im going to give each a rating of 5 on each field.

Tyson: 21/25
lewis : 21/25
Holyfield :18/25