The best heavyweight world title holders who never wore the real championship.

[BattlingNelson]

That is a fair (and anticipated) question from a respected poster.
A small number of minor to mid-level businessmen, such as Mauricio Sulaimán Saldivar, Gilberto Jesus "Gilbertico" Mendoza, Daryl J. Peoples and Francisco Valcarcel would disagree with me.


Casual fans might be lead astray by those disagreements, sadly.
In their defense, however; they're all apt to have more important matters in their lives to concern them, and it is a decades in the making effort that has been undertaken in order to confound those fans.
The cause, of course, beging to legitimize company belts sold to promoters and the profits derived therein.

But historians find themselves of one accord, knowing and thus acknowledging the infallibility of carefully documented and universally acknowledged history.





Acceptance of this history is a better measure than any other to a follower of the sport looking to rate his own "level of expertise".

Posters love a good debate, but choosing a round earth topic such as this one to take up against would absolutely disqualify the eager debater from being worth the time.

This is my personal errand because boxing is a ridiculous sport, were people are promoted by their acumen in injuring the opponent's organs and brain.
But why the sport matters, is based solely on it's long, storied, multicultural history.
If that becomes muddled regarding the latchpin world heavyweight championship, and boxing is disconnected from it's history; then perhaps they should just as well ban the sport as meaningless violence, like a number of other contemporary combat sports are.


So to be clear as can be, the REAL WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONS OF THE MODERN ERA are:

1. John L. Sullivan (1882 - 1892) USA

2. James J. Corbett (1892 - 1897) USA

3. Bob Fitzsimmons (1897 - 1899) UK

4. James J. Jeffries (1899 - 1905) Retired. USA

5. Marvin Hart (1905 - 1906) USA

6. Tommy Burns (1906 - 1908) Canada

7. Jack Johnson (1908 - 1915) USA

8. Jess Willard (1915 - 1919) USA

9. Jack Dempsey (1919 - 1926) USA

10. Gene Tunney (1926 - 1928) Retired. USA

11. Max Schmeling (1930 - 1932) Germany

12. Jack Sharkey (1932 - 1933) USA

13. Primo Carnera (1933 - 1934) Italy

14. Max Baer (1934 - 1935) USA

15. James J. Braddock (1935 - 1937) USA

16. Joe Louis (1937 - 1949) Retired. USA

17. Ezzard Charles (1949 - 1951) USA

18. "Jersey" Joe Walcott (1951 - 1952) USA

19. Rocky Marciano (1952 - 1956) Retired. USA

20. Floyd Patterson (1956 - 1959) ** USA

21. Ingemar Johansson (1959 - 1960) Sweden

22. Floyd Patterson (1960 - 1962) ** USA

23. Charles "Sonny" Liston (1962 - 1964) USA

24. Muhammad Ali (1964 - 1971) *** USA

25. Joe Frazier (1971 - 1973) USA

26. George Foreman (1973 - 1974) ** USA

27. Muhammad Ali (1974 - 1978) *** USA

28. Leon Spinks (1978) USA

29. Muhammad Ali (1978 - 1979) Retired *** USA

30. Larry Holmes (1980 - 1985) USA

31. Michael Spinks (1985 - 1988) USA

32. Mike Tyson (1988 - 1990) USA

33. James "Buster" Douglas (1990) USA

34. Evander Holyfield (1990 - 1992) ** USA

35. Rid**** Bowe (1992 - 1993) USA

36. Evander Holyfield (1993 - 1994) ** USA

37. Michael Moorer (1994) USA

38. George Foreman (1994 - 1997) ** USA

39. Shannon Briggs (1997 - 1998) USA

40. Lennox Lewis (1998 - 2001) ** UK

41. Hasim Rahman (2001) USA

42. Lennox Lewis (2001 - 2004) Retired ** UK

43. Wladimir Klitschko (2009 - 2015) Ukraine

44. Tyson Fury (2015 - 2024) UK

45. Oleksandr Usyk (2024 - Present) Ukraine

Thanks for the clarification. There may be issues regarding Marvin Hart and Tyson Fury.

I reckon that the best hw not on the list is Vitali Klitschko. Ken Norton deserves a shout as well.

[BattlingNelson]

Great concept. Hmm...just from the list you have, Langford looks to me like the only guy whose flaws will not practically demand someone else on the list best him because of them. Langford's only flaw may be that he was small.

By popular consensus Holmes was undisputed heavyweight champion irrespective of any ABC proclamations.

Holmes does not belong on your list (which he isn't) but Greg Page does, for instance.

Much as I love him, Norton cannot win this tourney. His biggest flaw is more notable than anyone else's here.

Ken is a better fighter than either Wilder or Joshua, but they only have to find him once, and I believe they will. Many lesser fighters would find him--for instance Tommy Morrison would probably find him and score a blowout, and the same for Ray Mercer, as just fer instances.

Does Langford's punching prowess translate the same among today's ogres as yesteryear? I guess we would find out. I might expect him to be given more trouble by the boxers on the list like Terrell than by its big punchers.

I do expect him to be faster than anyone he fights here.

Langford (and wills) are not eligible for the list, as they never held a world title.

[Willow The Wisp]

- - Calling 300lb 6 years retired champion Jeffries lineal champ almost as bad as calling deathly sick Ali the lineal champ when he fought Tubby Lar.

Now Vit was WBC Emeritus 4 yr retired when he whooped WBC Champ Samuel Peter, almost as impressive as When Big George came out of 10 yrs retirement to ultimately become the heavy champ.

Calling Blubber the lineal champ when he won the titles while he should've been on a drug suspension, and then cowered his way out of the Wlad rematch for a 4 year highly publicized drug and alcohol binge is pitiable.

Thought intended, I imagine, to disavow the linial title by means of folly, the post only serves to underscore why it is that choosing the heavyweight champion was never a ********ic process.

[Willow The Wisp]

The question is a new twist on an old theme.
Plenty of times, we've seen the question asking for the "Best Heavyweights to never win The title/A title". This time, we're looking for those who in fact DID win "A title" (there are so many), but never THE title (of which there's just the one).

Langford, McCarty both held odd "world" titles.
Shavers never did.
Hart and Burns were up against no counter claims during their respective tenures.

Vitali Klitschko deserves a mention, without a doubt, as do other contenders/illegitimate title claimants, such as Jake Kilrain, C.C. Smith, Klon***e Haynes, Frank Childs, Morris Grant, Charles Hadley, P.E.I. George Godfrey, Peter Jackson, Bob Armstrong, George Byers, Peter Maher, Denver Ed Martin, Arthur Pelkey, Sam McVey, Joe Jeanette, Ed "Gunboat" Smith, Harry Wills, Big Bill Tate, George "The Leiperville Shadow" Godfrey, Georges Carpentier, Obie Walker, Larry Gains, Lee Savold, Joe Bugner, Mike Weaver, Michael Dokes, Gerrie Coetzee, Greg Page, Tony Tubbs, Tony Tucker, Trevor Berbick, Bonecrusher Smith, Tommy Morrison, Ray Mercer, Oliver McCall, Frank Bruno, Chris Byrd, John Ruiz, Corrie Sanders, Lamon Brewster, Nikolai Valuev, Oleg Makaev, Ruslan Chagaev, David Haye, Bermane Stiverne, Joseph Parker, Andy Ruiz Jr, Daniel Dubois are a few others.


They were all top contenders but NOT the World's champion!
Historians were NEVER unclear about this.

Time was; that being a top contender in the heavyweight class garnered plenty of attention and respect. Fake "title belts" were not required.

[JAB5239]

At his best with no Don King interference, Witherspoon has a very good claim. Not to underscore anyone the other outstanding heavyweights, but Tim could have been great.

[Kid Cauliflower]

Langford (and wills) are not eligible for the list, as they never held a world title.

I was just responding to who was on ye original list in post #1.

[QueensburyRules]

Langford (and wills) are not eligible for the list, as they never held a world title.

- - Le French Commish stripped JJohnson of his title to make Joe Jeannette vs Sam Langford for that "supposed lineal title" won easily by Sam in one of the finest fights of that time.

Certainly on par with the then English and US boxing overseers.

[Biledriver]

At his best with no Don King interference, Witherspoon has a very good claim. Not to underscore anyone the other outstanding heavyweights, but Tim could have been great.

Witherspoon was the one, at the time, that I had pegged to lift the title off Tyson. I doubt King would have let Tim within 100 miles of Tyson.

[JAB5239]

- - Le French Commish stripped JJohnson of his title to make Joe Jeannette vs Sam Langford for that "supposed lineal title" won easily by Sam in one of the finest fights of that time.

Certainly on par with the then English and US boxing overseers.

All this is very shady. Johnson fought and defended the heavyweight championship in France the day before Langford-Jeannette. At the end of the day it doesn't make a lick of difference as the rest of the world still recognized Johnson as the champion. He went on to defend the title, a recognized world heavyweight championship fight in June 1914. Johnson remained heavyweight champion until the Willard fight in Havana. If the Langford-Jeannette fight was for the TRUE heavyweight championship Sam's name would be in the history books. I'd say the French commission was a bit wishy washy considering the also stripped Langford shortly afterwards.

[Bronson66]

All this is very shady. Johnson fought and defended the heavyweight championship in France the day before Langford-Jeannette. At the end of the day it doesn't make a lick of difference as the rest of the world still recognized Johnson as the champion. He went on to defend the title, a recognized world heavyweight championship fight in June 1914. Johnson remained heavyweight champion until the Willard fight in Havana. If the Langford-Jeannette fight was for the TRUE heavyweight championship Sam's name would be in the history books. I'd say the French commission was a bit wishy washy considering the also stripped Langford shortly afterwards.

They stripped Langford about two weeks after recognizing him.
Jeannette does not look impressive in the remaining footage of the fight.