BS: The Greatest Boxer

Subject: RE: BS: The Greatest Boxer
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 14 Nov 11 - 11:06 PM

If we are talking about who could "beat" other boxers, boxers in their "prime" only. I am going with Mike Tyson he was scary good.

Subject: RE: BS: The Greatest Boxer
From: nager
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 08:10 PM

I favour boxers from the early part of the last century. In my opinion Jack Johnson was the best heavyweight champion. James J Jeffries, James J Corbett and Sam Langford were all up there with him too. Great fighters. But there were plenty of brilliant fighters too in that era in lower weight divisions. A tough task to choose the greatest boxer pound for pound.

Subject: RE: BS: The Greatest Boxer
From: mayomick
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 07:32 AM

It's all subjective , depending on how old you were when you started following the sport and who your first hero was. Ali was the best . People of an older generation who think that Joe Louis could have beaten him are just showing their age.

Subject: RE: BS: The Greatest Boxer
From: kendall
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 07:51 AM

Joe Louis was the greatest simply because he held the title longer than anyone else before or since.
whether   or not he could have beaten Ali is strictly opinion.
I believe Tyson could have destroyed Ali, but that's just my opinion.

Subject: RE: BS: The Greatest Boxer
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 02:25 PM

Apollo Creed wasn't too bad in his day, either. And he went on to be a damn fine trainer as well.

Subject: RE: BS: The Greatest Boxer
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 03:55 PM

A fine Boxer, MtheGM.
This one may be his equal- Bentbrook's Time to Ascend SOM. (Scroll down for portrait)
Bentbrook

Subject: RE: BS: The Greatest Boxer
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 04:00 PM

Sorry, Q, but that link didn't work. But thanks for the thought.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: The Greatest Boxer
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 04:00 PM

Error-
Bentbrook

Subject: RE: BS: The Greatest Boxer
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 04:06 PM

Ah, thank you. All of them much more beautiful than Tyson, that's for sure...

Subject: RE: BS: The Greatest Boxer
From: gnu
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 04:08 PM

Kendall... "Joe Louis was the greatest simply because he held the title longer than anyone else before or since."

Can't disagree with that.

Subject: RE: BS: The Greatest Boxer
From: Tunesmith
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 04:28 PM

Getting back to the idea that the greatest boxing has to be a heavyweight.
To reinforce this concept, lets apply weight division to some other sports.
Take the shot-put. Say we had weight divisions in that event. Would anyone dare to say that 10st welterweight thrower is greater than a heavyweight thrower who could throw 10m further than him?
No, that would be silly.
Same thing applies to boxing.
And, of course, if a lighter-weight division boxer moves up in weight and gets defeated it does reflect on their success at the lower weight.
For example, would anybody reading this thread dream of calling Ezzard Charles the greatest boxer of all time? No, that would be silly because we know that he got flattened by Jersey Joe and Rocky Marciano.
But, wait a minute, don't a lot of polls list Ezzard as the greatest light-heavyweight ever?
Well, yes they do, and Ezzard sorted out the great Archie Moore at least twice!
But, But, BUT! those defeats at heavyweight mark him down!
Or, put another way, his "greatness" was diminished by his defeats at the higher weight.
And, if Ray Robinson had tackled Floyd Paterson( who wouldn't appear in any top 10 heavyweight lists) and been flattened, his reputation would have been seriously diminished.

Subject: RE: BS: The Greatest Boxer
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 05:30 PM

It also depends on your definition of great. Could and undefeated, barely literate, wife beater be considered greater than a celebrated humanitarian without a criminal record?

Subject: RE: BS: The Greatest Boxer
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 06:36 PM

Paper covers rock, scissors cuts paper, rock breaks scissors.
Frasier beats Ali, Foreman beats Frasier, Ali beats Foreman.
Jack Johnson fought Langford before becomming champion and won, but it was the hardest victory of his career and he flatly refused to ever meet Langford again. Foreman punched as hard as Tyson and I believe that Foreman was a smarter fighter. Could Ali have rope-a-doped Tyson? I believe yes, but we will never know. I also believe that Larry Holmes could have used his awesome jab to hold Tyson at bay until he ran out of steam. Could Sugar Ray Robinson beat Sugar Ray Leonard in their respective prime? Marciano was tops in his day but how would he do in another era? How would he have done against a much bigger Lennox Lewis? Was George Chuvalo the toughest heavyweight ever (fought the best and never off his feet)?
It is subjective questions like this that still fire my interest in boxing, not what it has become today!

Subject: RE: BS: The Greatest Boxer
From: kendall
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 08:56 PM

And it's all pretty much irrelevant now.