Top ten heavyweight champions of all time
October 30th, 2009
By Dennis Broadhurst: This article is a list of the top ten heavyweights champions of all time. I hope the article will be able to give a better idea to some people on who the greats were. The fighters have been ranked on who they fought and beat, how well they beat fighters and are ranked in their prime.
9) Floyd Patterson – A greatly skilled heavyweight who was trained by Cus D’Amato. Patterson was a very good puncher and had extremely fast hands, he was also very elusive as he used the peek-a-boo defence style that D’Amato taught him. The one thing Patterson did lack was a good chin, he was knocked out in one round twice by Sonny Liston. For this reason Patterson is only 9th in the list.
8.) Sonny Liston – Liston was perhaps the most intimidating fighter of all time. He had great power and as mentioned knocked out Patterson in 1 round twice. Liston had a great chin and in his early career had good heart. Liston also had an extremely long reach of 84 inches but was a very slow fighter so gets the number eight position.
7) Jack Johnson – For his time Jack Johnson was a great fighter, he was defensively flawless and took advantage of the primitive styles of the fighters in his day. He was denied a chance to fight for the World title for a while because he was black but he chased down champion Tommy Burns and won the title. Johnson also defeated the previously undefeated James J. Jeffries who had made a comeback. So Johnson was a great fighter but he would not have stood up to the skill level of guys like Louis, Ali and Tyson so he is ranked at number seven.
6) Mike Tyson – Tyson was perhaps in his prime the ultimate pressure fighter, he had great power and speed in both hands and could take a very good punch. He was another D’Amato fighter like Patterson so he had great head movement. The reason that Tyson is not ranked higher is that he did not face great opposition in his prime.
5) Larry Holmes – Holmes was a great champion, he had a great chin, fast hands and a great left jab. He has to respected for his great record and skill in the ring. He also took on some great fighters in Shavers, Tyson and Ali (past his prime by far).
4) Joe Frazier – George Foreman. These two get the joint spot. Two great fighters and great punchers. Foreman had hellish power and destroyed Frazier twice but this was mainly because of styles. Foreman had an iron jaw and usually ko’ed opponents early.
Despite the losses against Foreman, Frazier had a solid punch, the best left hook ever, a great chin and unmatched heart, he also took on great fighters in Ali, Foreman, Quarry, Bonavena, Foster and others.
2) Joe Louis – The Brown Bomber gets this space. He was a great puncher and had fast hands, he only lost on three occasions and knocked out men a lot bigger than himself. Louis had an average chin whichj sometimes let him down but he had great heart and could knock out anybody if he caught them.
1) The Greatest, Muhammad Ali gets the top spot. Ali was the fastest heavyweight champion and had the fastest feet, he took a better punch than anybody and faced the best opposition of anyone in Liston, Foreman, Norton, Quarry, Bonavewna, Foster, Frazier, Moore, Cooper and Holmes. In his prime he was unstoppable, other fighters could barely lay a glove on him and it was only after a 3 and a half year forced exile that he slowed down.
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not the worst of ratings, would like to have seen Lewis and the K brothers in there mind, maybe a join fifth for them. And in my opinion Patterson should not be anywhere near the top 10, yes he was a good figher and very smart but his chin let him down, he was gettting rocked by jabs late on in his career. you said you were going on ratings at the time they were in thier prime, how can you deny LENNOX LEWIS of the number 1-2 spot its out rageous. and yes this is a very biased article as you mention no british fighters. other than that was a good read lol
ali is overrated. when he fought cleveland williams who was over the hill at that point cleveland williams still had the bullet in him from previously being shot. he was a dead man walking in boxing any way. knowing that the win now is not so great is it? seems to me as time goes on after boxers retire they get better and better. look at lennix lewis for example. after he fought vitali klitschko he lost his british acent.
How would you rate top ten British all time greats.
I will be interested to know!
rob; ali is number 1 because he is the “greatest”…/.seriously its because he fought so often back then and alot of good competitive fights..most of which he won , when most people didnt give him a chance..and yes he was very controversial..
rob you took the words out my mouth well done mate
Jimmy, it wasn’t Tyson but Bowe who rather lost his WBC belt than face Lewis, what’s actually kinda ridiculous for a heavyweight boxing champ if you think of it. But you’re right, Lewis wasn’t a ‘ditcher’ but he retired when he knew he got to old to be the very best. And ‘M’, I watched the Cleveland Williams fight of Ali (youtube rules) and was impressed, but I did one better… There was an other Cleveland Williams fight for the title 7 years earlier against Liston, guess what… same result, rematch with Liston… same result, far before that… a heavy middleweight… same result! And later in his career, almost every remotely good boxer knocked him out early. The guy packed a punch but had almost all nobodies on his list and when he fought a real contender or champ got beaten to a pulp. So it’s not the guy who you can hang Ali’s career on… That’s even a insult to Ali if you ask me.
tyson dodged lewis and gt his belt taken off him, lewis got 4 million dollars in compensation. lewis never dodged anyone. HES GOT TO BE IN THE TOP 10
I cant say I have, but thanks for the tip I will search if I can find it anywhere… But in advance to that, I have seen a lot of fights of Ali so I don’t think one fight will make a lot of difference in my opinion of the man. The fights I have seen are (as much in order as possible) the Liston and Patterson bouts, the Frazier trilogy, the Norton trilogy (omfg), the Foreman bout (impressive), Lyle, Young, Shavers, both Spinks bouts and the dismanteling by Holmes when Ali was far past his prime. Most of this fights were career defying as they call it, and he won most of them but like I said, the way he ‘won’ a few of them and the way he made his own rules in the process didn’t make me a fan. But thanks for the tip, Cleveland Williams it is. Maybe if I’ve seen it I will comment on that
No one would place Ali anywhere else other than top of the list having seen that fight.
Clearly you haven’t seen Ali’s fight with Cleveland Williams Rob – Dundee said its the only time he’s seen a heavyweight fight the perfect fight and it was true. Watch that fight and then you’ll understand why those who know rate Ali so highly. You have never seen any heavyweight fight like that I guarantee it.
What I never got is why people rate Ali so high!?
I’ve seen a lot of his fights in re-run and started watching the lad with all the stories in my head about his enormous skill. Man what a dissapointment that was! His ‘greatest’ fights where spoiled by excessive holding, joking to the public, while taking horrendus shots and relying on his iron chin and trowing some punches from large distance. And then he got the decision, while the public booed or in one case (norton) even broke the whole place down. Ali got a lot of wins by at least ‘disputable’ decision and some (2x norton for instance) where outright robberies. The guy was very good, and I’m still impressed by his win against Foreman, but he was certainly not the best. And for Lewis and Vitali; Lewis avenged both losses with a stoppage win and won from every opponent he faced, it’s a shame bowe ducked him, and Vitali only lost twice by injury, the one caused by Lewis can be seen as Lennox’ doing but the Byrd loss… come on, how unlucky can you be, he won almost every round ’till the shoulder injury and had nothing to fear from the lad.
By the way, my no 1 is ‘the brown bomber’ so you know.
Ok people who say that Klitschko would beat Ali are delusional, Lewis got KO’ed by average fighters and Smokin’ Joe and Marciano would have done the same.
lennox lewis should be in there
Are we talking era’s. I mean I love smoking joe and Marciano was a bull but they were both under 6 ft. You really dont the k bros or Lennox would beat them. We americans refuse to give crdit to any hw’s outside the US. sad. I rate those 3 in the top 5. easy.
Andrew:
Lennox Lewis was knocked out by 2 very good but quite ordinary fighters namely Rahman and Oliver McCall. The K brothers, although very good have also been beaten by average fighters.
Broadhurst is saying that these men were the top the best. Shake up his list any way you want, as long as you keep Ali, Tyson, and Frazier at the top and you will still have the same guys on the list.
I regret that your heroes, the K brothers and Lennox Lewis are still great, but they will never crack the top ten list. Never.
Broadhurst,
This article is well thought out. Giving Foreman and Frazier number 4 is good. This is the best selection of the top ten best Heavyweights I have seen.
I also appreciated your high mention of Jerry Quarry, and Oscar Bonavena and Bob Foster as great fighters. A solid top ten list.
Holyfield and Lewis would come in lower at 11 and 12.
have to agree that lenox lewis should be in there somewhere… superb heavyweight! Compile one of non US fighters!
Vitaliy and Wladimir would beat Ali very easy, Ali didnt even have their size.
No.1 are Klitshchkos!!!!
A top ten list comprising only US fighters !!!!!!
YAWN – Utterly predictable
If martians descended on earth delivering their heavyweight for a boxing match that decided whether the earth would be destroyed , who would humans pick I wonder ?????
Personally I would have a toss between Lennox Lewis and Vitali Klitschko
i’m interested to know what your picks for 11 through 20 would be, and possibly 21 through 30. speaking of lists, who would you say are the top 10 list-makers of all time?
i like the list but i have to argue that even with fraziers’ power that tyson in his prime would have been too much for anyone in the division.
Lewis needs to be in there somewhere IMO
yep lewis got lazy..got koed by a couple not so good fighters
yeah lewis should not have made it. remember the time he was knocked sparc out by rahman who was a very average boxer
lennox lewis did just enuf 2 win his fights and ,dodged alot of fighters so no to lewis
Holyfield would come in at 11th in my opinion.
foreman is rated 4th
i say holyfield belongs in there because he was great and he fought anyone period .not just the fighters that would make him look good..
read number 4…it says frasier and foreman split
Let’s see, Liston gets rated but Holyfield, Foreman and Lewis don’t rate?
Ok.
The reason there is no three is because one spot is joint and there would be 11 fighters if there was a 3
1, 2, 4, 5, 6 ,7 ,8 ,9 10
u must know your stuff dennis. max respect on that one
for me its tyson cant argue cos only seen rest in clips
Who’s number 3 in your list?
Woops I have written 15th round, the marcaino ko was 13th. and sonny liston is 8th