The Top Cruiserweights of All-Time

[HomicideHenry]

I seen recently comments made by some British sportswriters talking up Johnny Nelson as if he was one of the greatest cruiserweights of all time and from my perspective I don't have him in my top 10 so I was curious what everybody's top 10 or 15 cruiserweights of all time was.

Matter of fact I'm kind of perplexed how BoxRec has Johnny Nelson as the number three all-time Cruiserweight on their rating system and there is no sign of Holyfield or David Haye at all in their top 50. The only explanation I can see for this is that those men ended their career at heavyweight so they're not added on to the all-time cruiserweight listings.

#1- Evander Holyfield
#2- Oleksandr Usyk
#3- David Haye
#4- Carlos DeLeon
#5- Jean Marc Mormeck

I won't pretend I'm an expert on this division because I'm not but I would say that is the top five all-time cruiserweights. I'm sure people will tear me apart on my number three through number five, lol.

But the Johnny Nelson thing really perplexes me because as far as I know Johnny Nelson was WBO cruiserweight champion in a time when the WBO was not considered anything more than a belt which showed that you were a top 10 contender.

Sure he had 13 defenses as WBO champion, and was also the WBF and WBU champion but he was never "the guy" in the cruiserweight division. So how people could say Johnny Nelson was capable of beating Usyk and others in his prime kind of perplexes me.

[gilgamesh]

1. Holyfield
2. Usyk
3. Haye (and damn it, it kills me to say that)
4. Toney
5. Qawi

You definitely ain't an expert on it Henry.

Kovalev has only fought 1 fight as a Cruiserweight and it was just a fight nothing big, just another fight. He's not even in the conversation.

Look at the rankings now, and any year or any month since the Cruiserweight division has been made a thing. Every Cruiserweight that was ever rated Top 10 in the division is more accomplished at the weight than Kovalev.

That's just a fact.

And I like Kovalev.

[HomicideHenry]

1. Holyfield
2. Usyk
3. Haye (and damn it, it kills me to say that)
4. Toney
5. Qawi

You definitely ain't an expert on it Henry.

Kovalev has only fought 1 fight as a Cruiserweight and it was just a fight nothing big, just another fight. He's not even in the conversation.

Look at the rankings now, and any year or any month since the Cruiserweight division has been made a thing. Every Cruiserweight that was ever rated Top 10 in the division is more accomplished at the weight than Kovalev.

That's just a fact.

And I like Kovalev.

Lmao, well I did fix my list now making David Haye number three and Carlos De Leon number four. I'm just still perplexed how Johnny Nelson is being floated around by many as being this great cruiserweight.

[gilgamesh]

1. Holyfield
2. Usyk
3. Haye (and damn it, it kills me to say that)
4. Toney
5. Qawi

You definitely ain't an expert on it Henry.

Kovalev has only fought 1 fight as a Cruiserweight and it was just a fight nothing big, just another fight. He's not even in the conversation.

Look at the rankings now, and any year or any month since the Cruiserweight division has been made a thing. Every Cruiserweight that was ever rated Top 10 in the division is more accomplished at the weight than Kovalev.

That's just a fact.

And I like Kovalev.

Lmao, well I did fix my list now making David Haye number three and Carlos De Leon number four. I'm just still perplexed how Johnny Nelson is being floated around by many as being this great cruiserweight.

You'd have to rate him as one of the 10 best ever at the weight, but the weight class is relatively young compared to most others in the sport.

I don't think anybody would put him over Holyfield or Usyk, but you could reasonably have Johnny Nelson Top 5.

It'd be based purely on the amount of title defenses though.

The main reason why Nelson would still wind up rating reasonably high is because nobody else in the division really has all that great of a resume either.

[DrDuke]

1. Oleksandr Usyk
2. Evander Holyfield
3. David Haye
4. James Toney
5. Mairis Briedis
6. Dwight Muhammad Qawi
7. Murat Gassiev
8. Jean Marc Mormeck
9. Carlos De Leon
10. Vassiliy Jirov

[margaret thatcher]

big daddy evan

then uzzy

nelson would be lower top 10 if at all, prob around vasiliy jirov and gomez, another two guys with a lot of wins but mostly over weak opposition. who never unified or beat anyone else approaching this list

[Bodyshot3]

It feels like a score-draw between Usyk and Vander.....not a bad stalemate to have as it goes.

Guys like Huck had heaps of defences but it was all that German nonsense against uber-moderate opposition at home.

Cunningham and Adamek both rate higher for me, weirdly Huck's best performance was when he went up to HW and very nearly exposed Povetkin.

[DrDuke]

It feels like a score-draw between Usyk and Vander.....not a bad stalemate to have as it goes.

Guys like Huck had heaps of defences but it was all that German nonsense against uber-moderate opposition at home.

Cunningham and Adamek both rate higher for me, weirdly Huck's best performance was when he went up to HW and very nearly exposed Povetkin.

Huck also won a credible CW in Lebedev. I scored it close, I don't see it as a robbery. Yet he indeed had a lot of pointless defences.

[gilgamesh]

For the record, even though it doesn't factor into his Cruiserweight ranking. I actually had Huck winning over Povetkin. 115-113.

I mean it was a close fight, and not a robbery, but I thought Huck edged that one. So Huck was a pretty solid fighter, and I remember the fight where he lost the title to Glowacki was tremendous.

[margaret thatcher]

huck beat better opposition than jirov, nelson, gomez, etc. his opposition was decent, it's just that he mixed solid opponents with cans too

[Bodyshot3]

For the record, even though it doesn't factor into his Cruiserweight ranking. I actually had Huck winning over Povetkin. 115-113.

Agreed...Povetkin got feckin lucky and Huck should have at least got a draw.
Makes you wonder what would have happened if Huck's handlers had pushed him for some bigger CW fights.

[margaret thatcher]

i have extra respect for the cruisers who went through the division unifying, defending vs top contenders.....looking to have an ambitious career there rather than be a protected softy or simply pass through on the way to heavy

guys like gomez and nelson were talented but fight too many cans. jirov beat up mostly mediocre opponents and never unified vs any other champion. tony had only 1 win vs a top 10 cruiser (who himself mainly beat up mediocres) and didnt defend at all.

huck gets some flak, but he fought usyk, lebedev, cunningham, arslan, briedis, afolabi, glowacki, ramiriez, povetkin at hw........that aint bad at all

the rise of the wbss + stronger promotion in europe encouraged more guys to actually stick to cruiser and build a good career there