Those are extremely weird conclusions...given Liston had only one (1) successful title defense and Holmes had 20 successful title Defenses -- and they had very different results against Ali... And given the fact Liston lost to 180-pound Marty Marshall before he fought Ali and Holmes won 48 straight.Cojimar 1946 wrote:Well, the 70s top 3 are probably Ali, Frazier, and Holmes while the 50s top 3 are Ezzard Charles, Marciano, and Sonny Liston. I think its probable that Marciano beats Frazier and Liston beats Holmes though Ali would probably be favored to beat Charles.
Remember this -- Frazier destroyed ATG Light Heavyweight Bob Foster in only 2 rounds...while Marciano struggled against old Light Heavyweight Archie Moore for 9 rounds -- even getting knocked down... Marciano was Moore's 20th loss and the 5th time he was knocked out... Foster lost 4 times prior to fighting Frazier twice by KO... Both Moore and Marciano weighed 188, as did Bob Foster... But Foster was a rock hard 188 and 6'4"... Frazier weighed 209. You'll also notice that Frazier and Foster wore noticeably bigger gloves than Moore and Marciano.
The tell is this -- Bob Foster looked badly over-matched against the much bigger Joe Frazier -- and in Imminent peril the entire fight. But both Foster and Frazier looked fast, sharp, and athletic, and showed fairly good form in their fight.. By contrast, Moore and Marciano appeared evenly matched -- but both looked slow and a little rough around the edges.. So given the difference in athletic form and speed the 4 boxers displayed in the 2 fights -- one has to wonder what would have happened were Marciano marched with the Bob Foster who fought Frazier...since old Arch dumped Rocky to the canvas, my guess is that Rocky would have been beaten up, cut up, and possibly knocked out by Mr. Foster -- who was much taller, longer, and faster, but enjoyed the same poundage.
Just ignore that Foster lost badly all four times when he fought a heavyweight worth mentioning.