Posted By:
writehooks
There's Ali, then everybody else. Why? Quality of competition.
Johnson, Dempsey, Louis, Marciano and Tyson COMBINED didn't beat – let alone KO – three champions as good as Liston, Frazier and Foreman.
That said, my Top 10 is as follows:
1. Muhammad Ali
2. Jack Johnson
3. Joe Louis
4. George Foreman
5. Sonny Liston
6. Sam Langford
7. Larry Holmes
8. Joe Frazier
9. Jack Dempsey
10. Rocky Marciano
11-20 would have to include Lewis and Tyson in the top half and Holyfield in the second tier. While I agree Lewis had a decent jab, IMHO it paled in comparison to Ali, Liston and Holmes. I started attending and reporting on LL's fights prior to the 1988 Olympics (where he won gold for Canada), and while he morphed into a much better pro than anyone could have expected, his lasting legacy is that he emerged as the best of very pedestrian heavyweight crop in the '90s. Awesome physical specimen, but boring as hell to watch. That – along with a suspect chin (remember Oliver McCall??) – puts him no higher than No. 13 in my book – south of Gene Tunney and Jim Corbett.