Mikey Tapology Boxing Corner!

Alright folks, 

As you might know I'm Tapology Boxing editor. I know the majority of you guys are here for MMA, so was I originally. But for the last year or 2 there is a little more interest in Boxing on the site. 

So here's a place to talk boxing. 

Most people don't know **** about boxing 

Tyson is hard to rank all time.  Personally I don't have him in my top 10, maybe could sneak him in? But the peak Tyson (1986/88) was a real force. Wins over Spinks(a P4P guy despite absolutely ****ting it), Holmes(top 5 Heavyweight all time) are Elite wins. Also in that period he defeated all these World Champions Bonecrusher Smith, Tony Tubbs, Tony Tucker, Frank Bruno, Pinklon Thomas, Trevor Berbick also Tyrell Biggs the 84 Olympic Gold medalist. 
IMO his only top tier wins after that 86/88 period are the 2 vs Razor Ruddock, 1 fight in particular was a real war in which Tyson took lots of hard shots (look up Razor Ruddocks Smash punch!). Which goes against the "Tyson always crumbled" when someone stood up to him.

Tyson was both great and overrated!  He was a cash cow, hype job but also a devastating, athletic freak and 1 of the best punchers of all time!!

Here's my top 10 Heavyweights.  Would be interested to see anyone else's.

1 Mohamed Ali
2 Joe Louis
3 Larry Holmes
4 Lennox Lewis
5 George Foreman 
6 Rocky Marciano
7 Sonny Liston 
8 Evander Holyfield 
9 Jack Dempsey 
10 Joe Frazier

Was going to do an Honourable Mentions but too many so just made it a top 20 instead!!! 
11-20 are in no particular order 

Jack Johnson, Floyd Patterson, Mike Tyson, Wladimir Klitschko, Ken Norton, Rid**** Bowe, Gene Tunney, Ezzard Charles, Jersey Joe Walcott, Vitaly Klitschko 

JUST MISSED OUT!!! 

Ernie Shavers, Jim Jeffries, Archie Moore

I've always thought of Tyson as overrated by casuals yet underrated by hardcore fans. Also, I don't really hold Mike's past crime against him, guilty or innocent he did his time and has been a model citizen since (minus that whole ear biting fiasco). That's really all you can ask for a released convict.

I'm curious, why Sonny Liston over Joe Frazier? That's an interesting placement.

1 Lennox
2 Ali 
3 Louis 
4 Rocky 
5 Fraizer 
6 Wladimir 
7 Norton
8  Dempsey  
9   Holmes 
10 Tunney

Order doesn't really matter but these are the ten who I personally believe are the best Heavyweights. 

Tyson had done something like 120 rounds of professional boxing when he defeated Spinks. That's almost the same as Spence right now. Cus D'Amato guys seemed to peak early, Patterson was at his best at like 24 years old, and the Tyson that fought Buster was already showing signs of decline in comparison to his '86 self. Tyson arguably peaked when he was 20 years old. 

* Edited at 07.27.2022, 9:42 PM ET *

I feel Liston gets a little bit under rated because all anyone really remembers is Ali beating him x2. That image of Ali standing over him, hands aloft, after dropping him in the 1st round is 1 of the most iconic sports pictures ever! So understandable.

But Liston was a bad ass!!  People were terrified of him in his peak!  Although his reputation was deserved He had underrated boxing ability, his jab was like a ramrod! Also, George Foreman was his protégé and learned a lot from Liston(he did alright did he!) 

I think he has a slightly better resume than Frazier. Of course Frazer has the 1 amazing victory over Ali, he lost the other 2(tho 1 was maybe the greatest fight ever!) Foreman absolutely obliterated him x2, the 1st being 1 of the most one sided ass whoopings between 2 all time greats you'll see!
His other stand out wins are Ellis, Bonavuena, Quarry and Bob Foster (tho Foster is 1 of the best Light Heavies ever he was too small and no good as a Heavyweight)

I rate Liston s wins over Floyd Patterson x2 (top 15 greatest heavy all time) Cleveland Williams, Zora Folley and Cuban Nino Valdes(1 of the best professional Cubans) over Frazier wins.

Of course its all subjective and I could maybe be persuaded to put Frazier above him. Just like I could swap about half of that list

Liston is one of the only people you've listed to have a track record of being an accused cheat. Liston's corner absouletely rubbed him down with medication to blind Ali, than Clay, and most likely gotten away with it on other occasions. I don't rate cheats that highly. 

Lennox is a top 3 heavyweight imo but I'm curious why you think he's the heavyweight goat?

Haha, yeah that's true. They definitely did try and blind Ali!   I don't really care too much if there is a bit of pushing the limit. It didn't work out for him anyway. 

If my list took into account being a good guy Liston would be nowhere near it!! Ha

@Cheeseball I didn't give the order itself much thought, just listed the ten I think belong there. 

I'm trying to make a top 10 all time Heavyweights list but I'm way too tired and way too biased to make an accurate one. I keep leaning towards my favourite Heavyweights rather than the best. I've spent the last hour or so trying to bend logic to justify putting Daniel Dubois in the all time top 10 but just have to concede that he isn't quite at that level yet. 

Career Super-Welterwight/Middleweight Nobushiro Ishida, a man known for his fights aginst Dmitry Pirog, GGG and for famously spoiling James Kirklands night, finished his eventful boxing career by taking on K-1 Superstar, now turned full time boxer, Kyotato Fujimoto at Heavyweight. At first glance you'd think this was a sanctioned murder, Ishida was 40 years old and ready for retirement making himself balloon far above his natural weight class to fight a career Heavyweight. The fight ended up being very competitive with many believing the wrong guy got the nod in what was one of the weirdest "That happened" fights in professional boxing.

Fujimoto is still kickboxing I'm sure. I think the beating from Daniel Dubois made him reconsider boxing! 
I remember Ishida knocking Kirkland out with a jab, wasn't it multiple jabs? I seem to remember Kirkland running into them over and over! Crazy, Kirkland was being billed as a monster at the time!!

Pirog, 1 of the great what ifs in boxing. He was very very good, potentially great. I remember really wanting to see Pirog vs GGG.
Back injury forced him to retire. But on the bright side he retired as an undefeated World Champion with a few defences and a great highlight reel KO over Danny Jacobs. 

Pirog probably would've been stopped by GGG had they fought, but man I wish he never got injuried. I believe if he was given more time at the World level he could've really made it fashionable again to offensively shift as much as he did. He even used to hang in the cross-armed guard, when's the last time you've seen a Middleweight try that? Real old school boxer.