****Discussion Of The Day*** Part 2: The Top Ten Heavyweights of All Time This is where it gets a little tricky because you find yourself wanting to put this guy in and hate to take that guy out; but to make a list, you have to have reasons and you have to be consistent. I am my own authority and do admit to fluctuate in my rankings from time to time, depending upon my mood. However, the same names seem to keep popping up for the Top Ten or 12. It’s just WHERE they end up that is in flux. 6. Jack Dempsey……Dempsey was a prototype of the two main styles we see in modern boxing. Up until Jack destroyed Jess Willard in 1919, the same old stance seemed to be used with very few exception. Fists outstretched, head up high, stance wide. Dempsey changed all of that. He fought out of a crouch and sought to decapitate you with almost every punch he threw; but, contrary to popular belief, he could box as well, when the situation called for it. Dempsey ripped through the rankings, destroying just about anyone in front of him, regardless of size, style, or demeanor. With wins over Gunboat Smith, Fireman Jim Flynn in a rematch, Bill Brennan, the incomparable Billy Miske, and Fred Fulton, Dempsey earned his shot at the Giant Jess Willard, who had won the title a few years before over 26 hard fought rounds with Jack Johnson. Dempsey destroyed the old champion, knocking him down 7 times in the First Round, breaking his jaw, three ribs, and his cheek bone, not to mention the teeth he knocked out. The fact that Willard made it to the third before retiring in his corner is a testament to the toughness of the man. Subsequent title defenses over Brennan, Carpentier, Gibbons, and Firpo cemented Dempsey’s place at the top of the mountain. Many criticize Dempsey for not fighting ranking Black fighters of the day, Harry Wills and George Godfrey; but one most remember the politics of boxing and the United States in the early 1920’s before judging Jack too harshly. Jack Johnson had left a bad taste in the mouth of White America and, unfortunately, the fight game suffered for it. The fact is, Jack Dempsey was the proto-type for Rocky Marciano, Joe Frazier, and even Mike Tyson, whose moniker, “Iron Mike” was named after Dempsey’s right hand. Boxing had never seen a whirlwind like Dempsey before and we’ve only seen imitations of him since. This is why I rank him solidly at # 6. 7. Rocky Marciano….It seems, unfortunately, that every time one brings up the Rock in boxing conversations, the clichés begin to fly; how he only beat a bunch of old men, he was too small, he was slow and clumsy, etc., etc., etc. Well, here is some beef to chew on. Rocky earned his title shot by defeating another up and coming fighter named Carmine Vingo and ended his career. He then proceeded to defeat ranked contenders Roland LaStarza, Rex Layne, Lee Savold, Harry Matthews, and Joe Louis, YES, Joe Louis. Was Louis over the hill when Marciano beat him? Of course he was; but he was a name fighter who was winning and trying to get another shot at the title himself as well as make as much money as he could to combat his ever increasing debt to the IRS. Rocky did not want to fight Louis. Joe asked him to; and Rocky submitted. Concerning the first Walcott fight and Jersey Joe being “old”. Well, old he may have been; but the championship he did have, and he certainly didn’t look “old” while administering the beating that had him ahead on all scorecards going into Round 13 when Rocky found thunder. Ezzard Charles was only 33, just two years older than Rocky; and of course Archie Moore was ancient Archie; but he was the light heavyweight champion of the world. The point, the main point which the pundits often forget or are ignorant of when they pose the criticism of Marciano’s opponents is this. Why didn’t Rocky fight any young contenders? Because these “old guys” who people keep accusing Rocky of fighting were BEATING THEM. Nino Valdez, Rex Layne, Bob Satterfield were all dangerous heavyweights of Rocky’s day. The problem is Ezzard Charles and Archie Moore knocked them out of contention. What’s Rocky supposed to do? Discriminate based on age? Why did Evander Holyfield fight Larry Holmes? Because Larry beat Ray Mercer. The fact is Walcott, Charles, and Moore were three of the most talented fighters who ever lived and were that much better than the younger competition of the day. Think about it in terms of Bernard Hopkins, James Toney, and Juan Manuel Marquez. The fact is Rocky Marciano beat the best of his day and retired with a record of 49-0; and that alone places him automatically in the Top 10 without any threat of serious argument. 8. Evander Holyfield….What can be said about the Best Cruiserweight who ever lived who moved up and became the second best fighter in the second toughest heavyweight division ever? Holyfield had heart, skill, speed, and, did I mention heart? While it is true that Holy only won one of his three battles with Riddick Bowe, I think it safe to say that he made an overall better impact on the sport than did “Big Daddy.” Michael Dokes, George Foreman, Riddick Bowe, Ray Mercer, Mike Tyson, Michael Moorer, Hasim Rahman; these are the names of note whom Holyfield defeated. You can put asterisks next to Mike Tyson’s name if you wish, for we all know it wasn’t the same Mike before his three years away from the ring; but what few remember was how big of an underdog Evander was going into that fight because everyone thought he was shot. The thing that places Evander up here in the stratosphere is the fact that you could never count him out. He showed his championship heart in losing his title to Bowe by fighting the wrong fight and warring with the bigger stronger man; and then a year later, showed his championship mantle by fighting the fight he should have fought the first time in the rematch and winning his title back. When everyone had him counted out after the third Bowe fight, he climbs through the ropes and handles the Baddest Man on the Planet and completely outclasses Michael Moorer in a rematch. All of his most notable accomplishments occurred when he was past his prime and everyone had counted him out. This is what being a champion is all about; and no one defined that word better than Evander Holyfield. He would have more than held his own in any era in history; and that’s why he’s here. 9. Joe Frazier…..To start with, Smokin’ Joe won the Fight of the Century; and that is often forgotten about. Joe Frazier was a truth machine; a heavyweight version of Hammerin’ Henry Armstrong. He’d start off slowly and pick up the pace as the fight wore on and his opponents wore out. He was constant pressure, like Marciano, and never let you breath and beat all of the notable heavyweights of his day. His wins over Eddie Machen, Doug Jones, George Chuvalo, Buster Mathis, Quarry (2), Bonavena (2), Ellis, and most notably, Muhammad Ali defined his career. His whole career he only lost to two fighters, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, twice each. There was no quit in Joe Frazier. If you knocked him down, his blood would come screaming off the canvas at you. George Foreman may have knocked him down six times in two rounds when he took the title from Frazier; but Joe got up all six…..that’s saying something. Joe was in there to the final bell and is that special type of warrior who you have to carry out on his shield; and that’s why he’s here. And finally…. 10. George Foreman….I would not have had George here if it weren’t for the comeback, I confess. Foreman was a monster in his prime years, destroying George Chuvalo, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, and Ron Lyle; but that was not enough to put him here. George proved he could be outboxed and outthought in that career by Muhammad Ali and by Jimmy Young; but make no mistake about it, George could have torn through the heavyweight ranks in any era in existence. The man was King Kong. What puts George here is the fact that this man was so tough, and so good that he was able to not only start a comeback at age 38, ten years after his last fight; but he was able to finish it, becoming the oldest man ever to win the World Heavyweight Championship with that historic 10th round knockout over Michael Moorer in 1994. Yes, he destroyed Gerry Cooney and Adilson Rodriguez and warred with Evander Holyfield when everyone thought he would be embarrassed. But what can you say about a man who holds the title twice 20 years apart? He’s one of the best ever. Honorable Mentions: Sonny Liston, Gene Tunney, and Sam Langford. The reasons, briefly, why these man aren’t in the top ten: Tunney fought mostly at light heavy, as did Langford, who barely weighed as much as a super middleweight. Liston, probably has the best argument to be in the Top Ten out of those left out with wins over Machen, Folley, and Williams while they were in their primes. He was avoided like the plague by D’Amotto who didn’t want Patteson to face him, until Floyd went against his wishes and did it anyway. Manny will wonder why Mike Tyson didn’t make the cut; and due to his immense popularity, I feel an explanation is in order. For what it’s worth, I have him seated at 14, so he is one of the best ever, just not THE best. Simply put, as awesome of an athlete as he was, as phenomenal as his performances were, he just didn’t prove to be one of the best when it mattered. The thing that makes all of the fighters in the Top Ten stand out is how they dealt with adversity either during a fight or through a rematch. Tyson failed on both these counts. Every time he got dropped or fell behind on the cards, he failed to make the necessary adjustments to pull it out. If he lost to a fighter, he failed to defeat them in a rematch, if a rematch occurred. Muhammad Ali overcame blindness in Round 5 versus Liston, three years of exile and his peak years robbed, and came back against Frazier, Norton, Foreman, Lyle, and Shavers to pull out the wins when he was past his best, to say nothing of summoning up the will to get his body in shape one more time and outbox Leon Spinks and win the title an unprecedented third time when he was well past his prime. Joe Louis destroyed the one man who had embarrassed him in his youth under the most stressful circumstances imaginable against Max Schmeling of Germany on the brink of World War II. He was behind on all cards and about to lose his title to Billy Conn, when he rallied and got the knockout. After winning a bad decision against Jersey Joe Walcott, and getting off the canvas in the rematch at age 34, Louis flattened Walcott to secure his place in history and decide who was the better of the two men. Lewis rematched and beat McCall and Rahman, two men who had knocked him cold and found the will to hurt and severely cut Klitschko to stop him in a fight he was losing. Johnson overcame the racial prejudices of his day, facing death, literally every time he climbed into the ring, yet he dominated under those cicumstances. Holmes fought Ken Norton with a torn muscle in his jab arm, climbed off the canvas on multiple occasions to prove he was the Champ against Weaver, Shavers, and Snipes, came back from being hurt against Witherspoon, and fought under the hottest spotlight of all against Gerry Cooney in a race charged environment. Dempsey climbed off the canvas on multiple occasions throughout his career, sometimes not even remembering his knockout win….most notably against Firpo. When he was past his prime and trying to get his title back, he found a way to win against young up and comer, Jack Sharkey, stopping him after falling behind on the cards. Marciano was behind on all cards when he stopped Walcott for the belt, was about to have the fight stopped in the Charles rematch due to a horrid gash splitting his left nostril and climbed off the canvas to beat Moore. Frazier had to get off the canvas to beat Bonavena, faced the pressure of Muhammad Ali and the press brigade in 1971, and, did I mention he fought his whole career legally blind in one eye? Holyfield? Pick a fight. Foreman climbed off the canvas twice to stop Ron Lyle and beat Father Time. What more do you want? Mike Tyson for all of his ferocity and bad-intentions, physical gifts of hand speed, power, and training, failed to use all of this when it mattered most. It was not his fault he never got a chance to rematch Douglas; but it is his fault that he took a chunk out of Holyfield’s ear when the opportunity to win his belt back was there for the taking. It matters not that he was past his prime. All of the fighters on that list showed moments of greatness and heart and determination when their best days were behind them. In fact, that’s the usual time when a fighter has to show “the right stuff”. I’m not blaming Mike for being human; there is no blame at all. He was a truly great fighter who would have done well in any era; but you have to draw the line somewhere when determining who the very best were. Mike just didn’t make that cut in my opinion. All in all, this in my humble opinion, concludes the list of the Top Ten Heavyweights who ever climbed through the ropes: Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Lennox Lewis, Jack Johnson, Larry Holmes, Jack Dempsey, Rocky Marciano, Evander Holyfield, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman. #boxing #boxingconnected
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 04:15:00 +0000
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