I'd put money on Vitali, Holmes, Lennox, Foreman and Ali to beat him.
The big guys that are over 6'4 would give any version of Tyson problems.
Floyd Mayweather says Muhammad Ali is fifth best boxer ever.
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I'd put money on Vitali, Holmes, Lennox, Foreman and Ali to beat him.
The big guys that are over 6'4 would give any version of Tyson problems.
Floyd has beaten many fighters that were ranked very highly (at the time) throughout his career and has been successful in several weight classes.
CassidyIzABeast
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I'm not knowledgeable enough and I haven't been alive long enough to get in on top 5 arguments but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Mayweather despite his record isn't top 5 all time.
Frozenprince
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I think peak prime Tyson would be able to stand evenly with them if his left was hot. Ali he'd have issues with because well, Ali could fly around the ring, Foreman could probably take him in a pure match of power, Vitali, Holmes and Lennox I think are on even footing with him though.
Gordon Shumway
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Idiot days idiotic things..I know,I know..he's got money/I'm jealous.
He destroyed then undefeated Diego Corrales.
Chico was 33-0 with 27 knockouts before Floyd crushed him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW7oj7QosjA
Frozenprince
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As a quick aside, I had the pleasure and great fortune to meet The Greatest at a charity event 5 years ago with his daughter.
And man... it's soul shattering what's happened to him. The man is a shell. He can barely talk.
entremet
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This is why Ali is so regarded, the caliber of competition he faced.
shaowebb
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I know Larry Holmes shoudln't have stuck around to fight prime youth Tyson. Especially considering he had a habit of dropping his gloves to lure people inside for shots. Tyson was NOT the guy to lure inside or to drop gloves on for even a second. Knocked the fuck out.
Like I said...Larry Holmes' biggest failing as a boxer was knowing when he should have stayed retired.
CassidyIzABeast
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Sugar Ray Robinson has to be top 5 no question just off the strength of fighting 200 times.
FlashbladeGAF
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Jest Chillin
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46-0 Calzaghe always gets overlooked as well.
Frozenprince
Banned
Prime tyson would make it a fun match to watch.
That fucking left man. Watching him and prime Ali dance around each other would be something else.
Dreams-Visions
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how is that even possible
What the fuck? No, haha.
Tyson wouldn't put himself anywhere near the top 5, and if you showed him this list, he'd go mad. He respects the hell outta Ali.
entremet
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Dude padded his record fighting scrubs and washed out notables.
Uh, how are you calculating KO%?
TheMagician
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The best two fighters Tyson fought were Holyfield & Lewis.
My dad suffers from Parkinson's too, im thankful every day to see him stretching in the morning and doing his routine like usual knowing that people of his age with the disease might not do it.
I'm Welsh/British. I fucking love Joe Calzaghe, but he doesn't belong nowhere near a top 10 P4P list. He had great ability & unbelievable punching volume, but his career lacks a series of pedigree wins that other P4P champs have.
Jest Chillin
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A comment that often gets made about Mayweather and is definitely true about Chavez. Calzaghe was a bad, bad man. Nobody wanted to go to the UK to fight him.
He had to come to the US for the Hopkins and Jones Jr fights and still won both of those.
As I said above. Considering the politics that goes down in boxing, facing names in the last 20~ years doesn't necessarily mean the same thing as it did 35+ years ago. Just look at stuff like May and Pac happening out of each of their primes and Jones Jr and Hopkins also happening out of their primes.
Roberto Duran was an excellent fighter through most of the 70s. He beat Leonard and dominated the lightweight to middleweight divisions. The 80s weren't as kind to him.
Pernell Whitaker and Chavez do not belong in this conversation.
entremet
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He's good, but I don't he's top 10 of all time or close to it.
Vitali's fight against Lewis was god-tier. If it didn't get stopped early it could have been a contender for best fight ever.
That's such horse shit. The man fought and beat everyone put in front of him. He was a masterful boxer with a great chin and one hell of an engine. He never dodged anyone, they dodged him.
D
Deleted member 231381
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I agree, but I do think he's better than Mayweather.
Hopkins vs Zaggers was a great fight, but RJJ was past it when they got in the ring together. RJJ from the turn of the century would've spanked Calzaghe - That guy was a real force of nature back in the day. Hopkins, Kessler & Eubank are his biggest wins, and that's not saying a huge amount, to be honest.
Jones and Hopkins were over the hill, he avoided Roy during his prime and it took Roy getting knocked out a few times for him to finally fight him.
His record would look a lot different if he had to fight James Toney, Mike Mccallum, Roy Jones and Hopkins during their primes, which is when they were all fighting one another.
Jest Chillin
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I think he deserves to be in the discussion. Certainly if guys like Chavez are being brought up, or in the case of this thread, people ignoring the fact that he's listed top 5 when he shouldn't be.
shaowebb
Member
Ya know there are two guys that I WONT call in any top list, but I also feel need a lot of respect for their ability to react and dodge like it was second nature.
Prince Naseem Hamed and Emanuel Augustus.
It was like watching drunken boxers with the way they danced and just stayed loose and used their waist so much to full body dodge shots like they were nothing. Crazy thing was most of what came out of them were nothing but power shots that used their massive hip rotations to generate killing blows from those massive pivoting motions they did. They really threw off opponents too with their clowning because they were hard as shit to read and hit.
It is EXTREMELY rare to find boxers with this kind of natural affection for dodging and staying loose. Usually its all about the striking, but finding folks that feel like challenging your offense with just dodges is fun enough that its their main draw and comfort zone in the fight...thats very rare. They were some damned fine entertaining fighters...so much so that Hajime no Ippo based a character after Naseem's style. Look up Takamura vs Hawk to see it. Wonderful tribute to the sway style of power boxing. A very rare and very impressive style to witness.
Like I said, its not something I'd put on the list of "best" but its so impressive I had to bring it up.
Prince Naseem Hamed and Emanuel Augustus.
It was like watching drunken boxers with the way they danced and just stayed loose and used their waist so much to full body dodge shots like they were nothing. Crazy thing was most of what came out of them were nothing but power shots that used their massive hip rotations to generate killing blows from those massive pivoting motions they did. They really threw off opponents too with their clowning because they were hard as shit to read and hit.
It is EXTREMELY rare to find boxers with this kind of natural affection for dodging and staying loose. Usually its all about the striking, but finding folks that feel like challenging your offense with just dodges is fun enough that its their main draw and comfort zone in the fight...thats very rare. They were some damned fine entertaining fighters...so much so that Hajime no Ippo based a character after Naseem's style. Look up Takamura vs Hawk to see it. Wonderful tribute to the sway style of power boxing. A very rare and very impressive style to witness.
Like I said, its not something I'd put on the list of "best" but its so impressive I had to bring it up.
What is Floyds most impressive victory? When he KOed a past his prime DeLaHoya?
Ali may not be the best but he fought and beat hall of famers and champs in their prime.
You can't say that about Floyd.
Not sure if he is the best by Roy Jones is my pick for best boxer I got to see.
Ali may not be the best but he fought and beat hall of famers and champs in their prime.
You can't say that about Floyd.
Not sure if he is the best by Roy Jones is my pick for best boxer I got to see.
psychotron
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El_Presidente
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Are there any good books about boxing in say.... The 30's-60's? Or just any exciting boxing history books?
Argh, screwed up the math. I was dividing it by total fights, not wins.
Switch my vote to Vitali then, who has the better % of the 3
entremet
Member
Not in that era, but Ken Burn's Unforgivable Blackness on Jack Johnson on the first Black champion is excellent.
It's a documentary series, not a book, but very detailed.
That was prime Kessler as well and no body wanted to go near him as he was a wreaking machine at the time.
Jest Chillin
Member
.
We don't actually know what would've happened had Calzaghe fought those guys when everyone involved was in their primes. There's been plenty of matches where on paper, it's all but been decided but in the ring the results are a stark difference.
And that's not me saying Calzaghe would have won those fights for certain because even if he lost the matches themselves could've been incredibly memorable. You don't have to be undefeated to be recognized as one of the greats after all. My argument is looking at the talent and the performances rather than checking names off of lists, especially when we're talking about an era where the best of the best damn near avoid each other like the plague.
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