BoxRec

Rank the HWs from Floyd to Leon..

3rd in the series

http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f ... n#p2575647

http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f ... y#p2627684

Ali
Frazier
Foreman
Holmes
Liston
Patterson
Young
Norton
Quarry
Ellis, Lyle or Chuvalo

Ali
Frazier
Liston
Foreman
Norton
Patterson
Young
Quarry
Ellis
Lyle
Ingo
Bugner
Terrell
Williams
Bonavena
Chuvalo
L. Spinks

My 10

Ali
Frazier
Liston
Foreman
Norton
Quarry
Patterson
Young
Ingo
Ellis/Lyle

It's supposedly Patterson-to-Spinks (which, I am not sure), but Spinks, so far, has only appeared on one list?

And I had to make a pretty long list in order to include him.

Darn, I left off Bugner, so I guess Leon drops another spot.

And Holmes was already fighting in that era, how come he's on no one's list? It will be my pleasure to remove him from mine if he's not eligible...

Apologies gentlemen…

The idea is the fighters are the book-end champs of the era.

You don’t have to have either of them in if you don’t want to.

Holmes’ chance will come in the final instalment “From Larry to now…”

I left him off because I thought he belonged on the next list. If he is included he'd be pretty high on list because even though he hadn't reached his peak yet, he had already beaten a pretty fair list of fighters by early '78. Williams, Sanford, Arrington, the other Bobick and Shavers is certainly enough to put him pretty high on this list.

Ali
Forman
Frazier
Liston
Quarry
Patterson
Ingo
Ellis
Lyle

Jaywheel wrote:Ali
Frazier
Foreman
Liston
Patterson
Young
Norton
Quarry
Ellis
Lyle or Chuvalo

This list is now Holmes-proof.

Ali
Foreman
Frazier
Liston
Norton
Quarry
Patterson

in that order I think these guys belong. Foreman man-handled Frazier twice, I find it odd that so many people rank Frazier ahead of him.

Jimmy Young schooled Foreman and Lyle, and lost a very questionable decision to Ali is absent from many lists.

In no particular order.

Ali,
Foreman,
Frazier,
Liston,
Patterson,
Johansson,
Norton,
Quarry/ Terrell/ Bugner/Cooper/Ellis/ Lyle/ Young

1. Ali
2. Foreman
3. Frazier
4. Liston
5. Norton
6. Patterson
7. Johannson
8. Ellis
9. Terrell
10. Folley
11. Machen
12. Quarry
13. Young
14. Lyle
15. Shavers
16. Williams
17. Bonavena
18. Chuvalo
19. Bugner
20. Jones
21. Cleroux
22. Cooper
23. Mathis
24. DeJohn
25. Spinks

gilgamesh wrote:Ali
Foreman
Frazier
Liston
Norton
Quarry
Patterson

in that order I think these guys belong. Foreman man-handled Frazier twice, I find it odd that so many people rank Frazier ahead of him.

That's what I was thinking.

Foreman bounced Frazier around the ring like a basketball, not once, but TWICE, so how can he be ranked behind Frazier?

Well, I guess I wasn't sure exactly what years to count. Spinks actually fought all the way up to 1995. Young's career pretty much went downhill after 1977.
I was counting Youngs' entire career. He was extremely good at his best, but didn't have a long time at the top.
If we are only going to when Spinks had the title, then most of Youngs downhill slide would not count and he would rank higher.

At his best, I would probably rank him at #6, just behind Norton and just a head of Patterson.

Ambling Alp wrote:Well, I guess I wasn't sure exactly what years to count. Spinks actually fought all the way up to 1995. Young's career pretty much went downhill after 1977.
I was counting Youngs' entire career. He was extremely good at his best, but didn't have a long time at the top.
If we are only going to when Spinks had the title, then most of Youngs downhill slide would not count and he would rank higher.

At his best, I would probably rank him at #6, just behind Norton and just a head of Patterson.

Spinks may've fought into the 90's, but if we're talking careers going downhill, his started to die almost as quickly as it took off.

I was assuming they meant from the start of Patterson's first reign to the time Spinks beat Ali in 1978. If you meant the end of Spinks' entire career, then obviously that would require some changes to my list.

I guess there is no perfect way to do this, but probably the best way is to count a fighters entire career even if some it would be after timeline. (Of course not much weight should be given to fights when a guy is way over the hill.)
I am guessing that Ezzard meant the best fighters from Pattersons prime to Spinks prime. (Which would probably be 1978.)
With Young, he really was not that old in 1978 and should have had a few good years left. I think it is fair to count Young's bad performances when he is still in early 30s.

spinks reached his prime in round fifteen of ali-I....and he started downhill in round three of ali-II.

Foreman is currently 4-3 up against Frazier

This is an interesting one...

Bump!

BarryWashington wrote:

The Great John L wrote:Jimmy Young schooled Foreman and Lyle, and lost a very questionable decision to Ali is absent from many lists.

I've also read that his fight w/Norton was very close and could have gone either way (I haven't watched it yet).

Call me crazy, but, I don't think it's a crime to rank Young anywhere from #4-6 spot (given the time frame we're going off of).

Yes, the Young-Norton fight was basically a tossup. I had Young winning by a few points.

Ali
Foreman
Frazier
Liston
Young
Norton
Patterson
Quarry
Lyle
Shavers