Foreman vs Frazier for The Heavyweight Tile in 1973 (Video)

The Reason For My Faith ^ | 2/26/21 | Chuck Ness

[OneVike]

Yes, not just because of his accomplishments and devastating power, but also because of his longevity I put him in the top five of all time.

Always a gentleman and a true blessing to see him fight

[discostu]

Tyson is the only one on that list to deserve to be in the same sentence as Ali, Frasier and Foreman. The rest, including Lewis frankly, are also rans in boxing history.

[Vlad0]

Here are the top Top 10 (12, 20) lists that Google offers up.

GiveMeSport.com:

1: Muhammad Ali
2: Rocky Marciano
3: Joe Louis
4: Jack Dempsey
5: George Foreman
6: Mike Tyson
7: Joe Frazier
8: Larry Holmes
9: Lennox Lewis
10: Gene Tunney

TheFightCity.com - Top 12 Heavyweights of All Time.

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Joe Louis
3. Jack Johnson
4. Harry Wills
5. Rocky Marciano
6. Joe Frazier
7. Larry Holmes
8. Jack Dempsey
9. George Foreman
10. James J.Jeffries
11. Lenox Lewis
12. Sonny Liston

(Evander and Tyson are both given honorable mentions)

Ranker.com

1. Mohammed Ali
2. Joe Lewis
3. Mike Tyson
4. Rocky Marciano
5. Larry Holmes
6. George Foreman
7. Joe Frazier
8. Sonny Liston
9. Evander Hollyfield
10. Jack Johnson
11. Jack Dempsey
12. Lenox Lewis
13. James J. Jeffries
14. Ezzard Charles
15. Jersey Joe Walcott
16. Gene Tunney
17. Harry Wills
18. Sam Langford
19. Max Schmelling
20. Max Baer

The Boxing Insider.com: The 10 Great Heavyweights of All Time

1. Mohammed Ali
2. Joe Lewis
3. Larry Holmes
4. Jack Johnson
5. Rocky Marciano
6. George Foreman
7. Lenox Lewis
8. Jack Dempsey
9. Evander Holyfield
10. Joe Frazier

Tyson makes #6 on one. Doesn’t make the top 20, top 10 or top 12 on the others. Over-rated.

Lewis makes #7, #12, and #11 and #9. Appearing on all lists.

I’m telling you his stature is rising as people watch the fights and look at the records.

And of course, he did knock out Mike Tyson in the 8th round. (And Tyson is one year younger than Lewis, before you get started with the age excuse.)

There does seem to be universal acclaim for Ali as the Greatest of all time.

Foreman is also uniformly ranked high: 5, 9, 6, 6 on these lists.

Frazier also high, but not quite the equal of Foreman who tops him on 3 of the 4 lists: : 7, 6, 7, 10

And, yeah, I guess your point is “the greats fighting the greats” is shown by this survey, so maybe the Golden Age does deserve it’s name. Sonny Liston is arguably part of that generation, he appears several times, and Larry Holmes is on all the lists and did fight (and TKO) Ali late in his career.

[discostu]

No Lewis’ status is dropping as the era of boxing, the end of boxing as a sport that mattered to America, is fading from memory. Between too many federations, rampant corruption, “champions” who won’t defend their belt, and the rise of MMA boxing is dead. It was already dying by the time Lewis showed. Not his fault. Don King’s fault mostly. But that’s how it is.

Tyson is an interesting one. He was probably the greatest puncher boxing ever saw. But he was actually a crap boxer. Anybody he couldn’t kill in the first round or two would beat him, he had no technique and no stamina. He came out, pounded you with those cannons, and if you withstood that blast you would beat him. Basically Foreman only more extreme. Foreman at least had some technique. So where should he be on any list? I guess that depends on if I’m listing boxers or fighters. He was one of the best fighters to enter the ring, so if that’s the list top 10 for sure. If it’s a boxer list forget about it.