Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

The Worst Heavyweight World Champion Was

Leon Spinks
3
7%
John "The Quiet Man" Ruiz
6
14%
Oliver McCall
1
2%
Hasim Rahman
0
No votes
Primo Carnera
4
9%
Deontay Wilder
4
9%
Jimmy Braddock
1
2%
Marvin Hart
3
7%
James "Bonecrusher" Smith
0
No votes
Bruce Seldon
15
35%
Anthony Joshua
0
No votes
Any others?
6
14%
 
Total votes: 43

keithmoonhangover
Cruiserweight
Posts: 16747
Joined: 16 Sep 2010, 10:42

Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by keithmoonhangover »

Cap wrote: 14 Aug 2025, 11:50 Briggs or Spinks? What a choice. ( I always wondered if Ali picked Spinks instead of Norton because he knew in a rematch he could whip Leon.)

Briggs? The closest he got to being world champion was losing to Lennox Lewis.
He beat Foreman, who was the man who beat the man etc.

Do you think Spinks and Briggs are better than Tommy Burns and Marvin Hart? Difficult to tell, I know.
Jeff_lacy_ko
Super Featherweight
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Joined: 06 Sep 2018, 14:15

Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by Jeff_lacy_ko »

Briggs was a lineal champ

Also beat liakhovich to win the wbo title
gilgamesh
Cruiserweight
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Joined: 02 Sep 2010, 16:21

Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by gilgamesh »

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: 14 Aug 2025, 23:16 Briggs was a lineal champ

Also beat liakhovich to win the wbo title
The Liakhovich fight is probably the only time in his entire career he ever showed power late in a fight, and I remember him being out of breath for like 5 to 10 solid minutes after the fight :lol:
Riddick Bowie
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Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by Riddick Bowie »

The Liakovich fight was the first time Briggs needed oxygen after going 12 rounds, a tradition continued after fights with Ibragimov and Klitschko. Dimly recall him being behind against Liakovich, who found a way to lose in the last 10 seconds.

Still amazed Klitschko couldn't stop him. I know it's a bad look to be sitting behind a laptop not taking punches and pontificating about the lack of power of this or that man-mountain, but Briggs in his prime was down multiple times versus Lennox, down against McCline and Ibragimov, stumbling around exhausted against Botha, struggled with the fitness of a fat 50 yr old Foreman, flattened by Darrol Wilson... and Vitali while teeing off on a 40 yr old Briggs couldn't stop or even down him?
gilgamesh
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Joined: 02 Sep 2010, 16:21

Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by gilgamesh »

It was definitely weird that he couldn't drop Briggs. Briggs almost certainly would've been better off if he had in fact gone down. He took a horrific beating in that fight.
Jeff_lacy_ko
Super Featherweight
Posts: 5710
Joined: 06 Sep 2018, 14:15

Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by Jeff_lacy_ko »

Teddy atlas claimed briggs invented having athsma after his first loss

And given the steroids you get for long term asthma that makes sense
Controversial
Heavyweight
Heavyweight
Posts: 9152
Joined: 13 Jul 2002, 18:29

Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by Controversial »

Didn’t Briggs fail a PED test for elevated levels of testosterone. The asthma claim was a common thing for getting around testing, lots of top cyclists all claimed to have asthma too
Ambling Alp II
Super Middleweight
Posts: 15097
Joined: 04 Nov 2012, 18:31

Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by Ambling Alp II »

hope he wasn't a drug cheat, but it would not be that surprising. Not everyone can be clean like Vitaly Klitschko.
hhaehre
Heavyweight
Heavyweight
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Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by hhaehre »

gilgamesh wrote: 15 Aug 2025, 13:09 It was definitely weird that he couldn't drop Briggs. Briggs almost certainly would've been better off if he had in fact gone down. He took a horrific beating in that fight.
I think Briggs had a better chin than he was given credit for and Vitali was a bit of an arm puncher. The beating he took was bad, brain damage bad, shades of Holmes-Cobb.
Riddick Bowie
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Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by Riddick Bowie »

hhaehre wrote: 18 Aug 2025, 04:18
gilgamesh wrote: 15 Aug 2025, 13:09 It was definitely weird that he couldn't drop Briggs. Briggs almost certainly would've been better off if he had in fact gone down. He took a horrific beating in that fight.
I think Briggs had a better chin than he was given credit for and Vitali was a bit of an arm puncher. The beating he took was bad, brain damage bad, shades of Holmes-Cobb.
Agree to an extent, I think he had stamina and confidence issues more than a bad chin. Against Wilson he looked like he had a panic attack because he wasn't accustomed to an opponent surviving his early onslaught and fighting back. Against Lewis he was tiring but went down swinging. I would expect a true puncher to stop a 40 year old version of him though.

He was in the Tyson sweepstakes in 1999/2000, wish that fight had come off. Imagine it would have gone similar to the Golota fight.
Jaywheel
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Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by Jaywheel »

Ambling Alp II wrote: 17 Aug 2025, 14:11 hope he wasn't a drug cheat, but it would not be that surprising. Not everyone can be clean like Vitaly Klitschko.
:clap:
margaret thatcher
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Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by margaret thatcher »

or muhammad ali or evan fields or alp's cruiser lover james toney :clap:
Ambling Alp II
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Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by Ambling Alp II »

Ali was not a drug cheat. I don't like James Toney. Never said I did.
margaret thatcher
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Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by margaret thatcher »

ya he popped hot vs holmes, for something commonly used to mask use of other substances. though im sure it wasnt quite the cocktail that 'evan fields' ordered

ali popped on more pro drug tests than klit did funnily enough

although i never assume any high level pro is clean, even if they are passing tests
Riddick Bowie
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Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by Riddick Bowie »

Diuretics for weight loss administered by quack doctors to a fat, ailing half-cadaver is the same thing as the Klitschkos being up to their eyeballs on steroids fighting on home turf against men half their size....

... at least in the mind of Maggie Thatcher, Boxrec's village idiot.
margaret thatcher
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Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by margaret thatcher »

diuretics are one of the main masking agents and everyone who gets caught has excuses. ali popped hot my man, it's just a fact. i never passed any value judgement on it or said it was any better/worse/equal to whatever the klits have taken :TU:
Ambling Alp II
Super Middleweight
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Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by Ambling Alp II »

You have to know that is not the same thing. But because I like him, you say this. Grow up. Are you still obsessed with Jack Johnson and Cleveland Williams as well?
margaret thatcher
Featherweight
Posts: 39200
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Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by margaret thatcher »

clean fighters aren't popping hot for diuretics :TU:

and i didnt even say it was a bad thing and didn't compare its severity to these other cases. tbh i dont think it's a big deal because i assume most top fighters have been on something for many decades now and it's mostly a matter of who covers up best (diueretics are used for that incidentally). ali is a greater hw than all those others regardless, fact is he got busted with some dirt though

that this should somehow be off limits or is a personal attack is :lol:
Riddick Bowie
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Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by Riddick Bowie »

As usual, the man-child either misunderstands the facts or misinterprets them in order to get a rise out someone.

10 years of coming on Boxrec daily to wind up posters. 10 years. ya ya lol lol wink wink my man - it's god-defeatingly cretinous behaviour that any normal person would have grown out of long ago. You don't need to know his real name or see his face, his antics tell you literally everything you need to know about the man and his life.
Controversial
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Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by Controversial »

Who really knows if fighters were using PEDS back in the day. PEDS have been around for a very long time and used extensively in strength sports back in the 50s/60s. We are talking about the most corrupt sport in the world so to think every top fighter was clean is naive.
margaret thatcher
Featherweight
Posts: 39200
Joined: 22 Jul 2019, 15:43

Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by margaret thatcher »

another name change bill? how many names/accounts you on now :lol:
keithmoonhangover
Cruiserweight
Posts: 16747
Joined: 16 Sep 2010, 10:42

Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by keithmoonhangover »

margaret thatcher wrote: 20 Aug 2025, 06:51 another name change bill? how many names/accounts you on now :lol:
Don't ask mate, or he'll bore you with how he's been on BoxRec since god was a lad.
Riddick Bowie
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Heavyweight
Posts: 931
Joined: 19 Jul 2003, 07:25

Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by Riddick Bowie »

Christ, Keith and Maggie have found each other. It's like Dumb & Dumber.
margaret thatcher
Featherweight
Posts: 39200
Joined: 22 Jul 2019, 15:43

Re: Who Was the Worst Heavyweight World Champion in Your View?

Post by margaret thatcher »

hey speaking of jim carrey flicks, i wonder if they made 'me , myself, and irene' after ole billy tully/tuan jim/overhandright/loaded gloves/riddick bowie and his multiple identities :lol:
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