The Heavyweight Title Defenders

[Willow The Wisp]

As we struggle with the universal inaction in an otherwise excellent heavyweight division these days, let's see how those who made plenty of successful title defenses did it.

Most title defenses in a single calendar year:

John L. Sullivan 1884. -11
Joe Louis 1941. -7
Ezzard Charles 1951. -7
Tommy Burns. 1908. -6
Muhammad Ali 1966. -5
Jack Johnson. 1909. -4
Larry Holmes 1980. -4
Mike Tyson 1987. -4
James J. Jeffries. 1901. -3
Lennox Lewis 2000. -3
Wladimir Klitschko 2002, 08, 12. -3
Vitali Klitschko 2009. -3
Tyson Fury 2018. -3
Jack Dempsey 1920, 23. -2
Rocky Marciano. 1953, 54, 55. -2
Floyd Patterson 1957, 1961. -2
Joe Frazier 1968, 69, 70, 72. -2
Evander Holyfield 1991. -2
Deontay Wilder 2016, 17, 18, 19. -2
Anthony Joshua 2016, 17. -2

[max baer]

I can't speak with huge authority but I recall in the 80's nearly all heavyweight title fights were in the USA las vegas or atlantic city. This made the making of title fights relatively easy. We all knew where the fight would be and sold the tickets and us boxing fans in the UK stayed up all night to watch.
It seems now that promoters have links to certain tv companies and the different tv stations don't help each other but seem to create loads of problems for lawyers to clean up.
They build the biggest fights in order to get fighters and hangers on the most money and this can go on for years. Frustrating for boxing fans.
ha ha john L with 11 title fights in one year!!! love it!!!

[The D3vil]

As we struggle with the universal inaction in an otherwise excellent heavyweight division these days, let's see how those who made plenty of successful title defenses did it.

Most title defenses in a single calendar year:

John L. Sullivan 1884. -11
Joe Louis 1941. -7
Ezzard Charles 1951. -7
Tommy Burns. 1908. -6
Muhammad Ali 1966. -5
Jack Johnson. 1909. -4
Larry Holmes 1980. -4
Mike Tyson 1987. -4
James J. Jeffries. 1901. -3
Lennox Lewis 2000. -3
Wladimir Klitschko 2002, 08, 12. -3
Vitali Klitschko 2009. -3
Tyson Fury 2018. -3
Jack Dempsey 1920, 23. -2
Rocky Marciano. 1953, 54, 55. -2
Floyd Patterson 1957, 1961. -2
Joe Frazier 1968, 69, 70, 72. -2
Evander Holyfield 1991. -2
Deontay Wilder 2016, 17, 18, 19. -2
Anthony Joshua 2016, 17. -2

You lost me at "otherwise excellent heavyweight division"

[Slugfester]

You lost me at "otherwise excellent heavyweight division"

Indeed that pushed my eyebrows up too. There are three fighters good enough to get interested in. His letter was an outlier in an otherwise excellent career of letter writing.

[Willow The Wisp]

Indeed that pushed my eyebrows up too. There are three fighters good enough to get interested in. His letter was an outlier in an otherwise excellent career of letter writing.

Lol. OK. You guys are on.

[QueensburyRules]

- - There is no reason not to defend at least 2x a year save for major injury.

Haymon paid Gary Russet Jr to fight pushovers once a year for a few million, one of many examples of Haymon ruining boxing.

[Willow The Wisp]

You lost me at "otherwise excellent heavyweight division"

Lol....glad I got a reaction, anyway. Man, I get next to nothing in the non-stop boxing section that's worth a response.

And thanks for the compliment on my written offerings here Slugfaster.
Hopefully I don't generally come off as a poor source of information.

So you don't think much of a heavyweight era with a minimum of 4 prime-of-life future hall-of-famers featured in the top 10, eh?

So lets use my rankings.
I'm a ranker from way, way back, under Lew Eskin.
"Copious study will never fully cleanse the subjective nature of rankings, but you must always be prepared to defend what you write ", he would say.
So here are My current ratings, and I'm prepared.

Champion -
Tyson Fury
1. Oleksandr Usyk
2. Deontay Wilder
3. Anthony Joshua
4. Andy Ruiz
5. Zhilei Zhang
6. Joe Joyce
7. Luis Ortiz
8. Daniel Dubois
9. Dillian Whyte
10.Martin Bakole
11.Joseph Parker
12.Filip Hrgovic
13.Frank Sanchez
14.Derek Chisora
15.Jarred Anderson
16.Murat Gassiev
17.Arslanbek Makhmudov
18.Efe Ajagba
19.Otto Wallin
20.Carlos Takam
21.Tony Yoka
22.Agit Kabayel
23.Robert Helenius
24.Jarrell Miller
25.Ali Eren Demirezen
26.Fabio Wardly
27.Zhan Kossobutskiy
28.Kubrat Pulev
29.Charles Martin
30.Lenier Pero
31.Jermain Franklin
32.Simon Kean
33.Kevin Lerena
34.Adam Kownacki
35.Stephen Shaw
36.Arslan Yallyev
37.Lucas Browne
38.Ivan Dychko
39.Bakhodir Jalolov
40.Demsey McKean
41.David Adeleye
42.Kem Ljungquist
43.Alexis Barriere
44.Justice Huni
45.Mike Balogun
46.Jonathan Guidry
47.Jose Larduet
48.Ryad Merhy
49.Jonathan Rice
50.Jerry Forrest

Now, use this resource below, and do this:

Go back 40 years, to 1983.
Find me a Ring top 10 list, 3 of them, each seperated by 5 years or more, within the 40 year block (ex. 1985, 1990, 2000), that display a better top 10 than today's.



Game on.

[The D3vil]

Lol....glad I got a reaction, anyway. Man, I get next to nothing in the non-stop boxing section that's worth a response.

And thanks for the compliment on my written offerings here Slugfaster.
Hopefully I don't generally come off as a poor source of information.

So you don't think much of a heavyweight era with a minimum of 4 prime-of-life future hall-of-famers featured in the top 10, eh?

So lets use my rankings.
I'm a ranker from way, way back, under Lew Eskin.
"Copious study will never fully cleanse the subjective nature of rankings, but you must always be prepared to defend what you write ", he would say.
So here are My current ratings, and I'm prepared.

Champion -
Tyson Fury
1. Oleksandr Usyk
2. Deontay Wilder
3. Anthony Joshua
4. Andy Ruiz
5. Zhilei Zhang
6. Joe Joyce
7. Luis Ortiz
8. Daniel Dubois
9. Dillian Whyte
10.Martin Bakole
11.Joseph Parker
12.Filip Hrgovic
13.Frank Sanchez
14.Derek Chisora
15.Jarred Anderson
16.Murat Gassiev
17.Arslanbek Makhmudov
18.Efe Ajagba
19.Otto Wallin
20.Carlos Takam
21.Tony Yoka
22.Agit Kabayel
23.Robert Helenius
24.Jarrell Miller
25.Ali Eren Demirezen
26.Fabio Wardly
27.Zhan Kossobutskiy
28.Kubrat Pulev
29.Charles Martin
30.Lenier Pero
31.Jermain Franklin
32.Simon Kean
33.Kevin Lerena
34.Adam Kownacki
35.Stephen Shaw
36.Arslan Yallyev
37.Lucas Browne
38.Ivan Dychko
39.Bakhodir Jalolov
40.Demsey McKean
41.David Adeleye
42.Kem Ljungquist
43.Alexis Barriere
44.Justice Huni
45.Mike Balogun
46.Jonathan Guidry
47.Jose Larduet
48.Ryad Merhy
49.Jonathan Rice
50.Jerry Forrest

Now, use this resource below, and do this:

Go back 40 years, to 1983.
Find me a Ring top 10 list, 3 of them, each seperated by 5 years or more, within the 40 year block (ex. 1985, 1990, 2000), that display a better top 10 than today's.



Game on.

Fury's a lock for the HOF

Usyk's a lock

Wilder will probably get it, he's an American, who defended the belt 10x & was apart of the best trilogy in recent history

Joshua needs one more win. I'm not convinced he's in.

Everybody else is wack. Nobody else matters.

[Slugfester]

Lol....glad I got a reaction, anyway. Man, I get next to nothing in the non-stop boxing section that's worth a response.

And thanks for the compliment on my written offerings here Slugfaster.
Hopefully I don't generally come off as a poor source of information.

So you don't think much of a heavyweight era with a minimum of 4 prime-of-life future hall-of-famers featured in the top 10, eh?

So lets use my rankings.
I'm a ranker from way, way back, under Lew Eskin.
"Copious study will never fully cleanse the subjective nature of rankings, but you must always be prepared to defend what you write ", he would say.
So here are My current ratings, and I'm prepared.

Champion -
Tyson Fury
1. Oleksandr Usyk
2. Deontay Wilder
3. Anthony Joshua
4. Andy Ruiz
5. Zhilei Zhang
6. Joe Joyce
7. Luis Ortiz
8. Daniel Dubois
9. Dillian Whyte
10.Martin Bakole
11.Joseph Parker
12.Filip Hrgovic
13.Frank Sanchez
14.Derek Chisora
15.Jarred Anderson
16.Murat Gassiev
17.Arslanbek Makhmudov
18.Efe Ajagba
19.Otto Wallin
20.Carlos Takam
21.Tony Yoka
22.Agit Kabayel
23.Robert Helenius
24.Jarrell Miller
25.Ali Eren Demirezen
26.Fabio Wardly
27.Zhan Kossobutskiy
28.Kubrat Pulev
29.Charles Martin
30.Lenier Pero
31.Jermain Franklin
32.Simon Kean
33.Kevin Lerena
34.Adam Kownacki
35.Stephen Shaw
36.Arslan Yallyev
37.Lucas Browne
38.Ivan Dychko
39.Bakhodir Jalolov
40.Demsey McKean
41.David Adeleye
42.Kem Ljungquist
43.Alexis Barriere
44.Justice Huni
45.Mike Balogun
46.Jonathan Guidry
47.Jose Larduet
48.Ryad Merhy
49.Jonathan Rice
50.Jerry Forrest

Now, use this resource below, and do this:

Go back 40 years, to 1983.
Find me a Ring top 10 list, 3 of them, each seperated by 5 years or more, within the 40 year block (ex. 1985, 1990, 2000), that display a better top 10 than today's.



Game on.

I am only interested in those on your list who would whip Rocky Marciano and whip him good. Cut 'em out for me, will ya? Or would all of them?

[QueensburyRules]

- - AJ retires tomorrow he's a lock HOF in 5 yrs. If he gets run over by a truck, he's in the next year.

Best fighter since the Ks retired by far and brought huge interest and $$$ to the division that died out after the Ks emasculated all the Americans and Brits.

And it's no surprize that Usyk and Loma to a lesser degree have picked up the Ukrainian mantle.

Blubber and Deyonce can go pound sand together on their own pacific atoll as far as I rank them.