ESPNs top 50 Fighters of all time

[ICB]

I've also never understood why Joe Frazier gets rated so high, he is very overrated i'd love to know what he did. To be rated much higher than Larry Holmes, i also feel George Foreman gets very overrated aswell, he had two brief title reigns.

Joe Frazier won the Biggest fight Ever. He was the first man ever to beat Muhammad Ali. He was undisputed heavyweight champion in THE single greatest era of heavyweight boxing, and he was an Olympic gold medalist.

Forman was a two time undisputed heavyweight champion, once in the greatest era of heavyweight boxing and again 20 years latter in the 2nd greatest era of heavyweight boxing. He is the first person to beat Joe Frazier and did it by knockout. Twice.

So what if Joe Frazier had one single big win against a rusty Muhammad Ali ? how many fighters have had one big win over a great fighter ? take Randolph Turpin he beat the greatest fighter of all time, i don't see him anywhere, and even though he lost the rematch, he was still beating SRR in the rematch until SRR rallied.

Where as Joe Frazier wasn't even really competitive in the next two fights with Muhammad Ali, he atleast lost by 4 or 3 rounds in the 2nd fight, and he was atleast 5 rounds behind in the 3rd fight. One big win shouldn't automatically get you that high in the rankings, and his other wins against Jimmy Ellis x2, Jerry Quarry x2, OscarBonavena x2, Buster Mathis, Joe Bugner, are decent wins but hardly warranting that high of a ranking.

As for George Foreman again yes he defeated Joe Frazier x2, which were very good wins. But other than a win over Ken Norton, who always mostly folded against big punchers, what other wins did George Foreman have that stand out ? he beat Ron Lyle but was almost Ko'ed in the process, and no disrespect to Ron Lyle but he's nowhere near one of the top Heavyweights. I wouldn't even put him in the top 40 Heavyweights of all time.

George Chuvalo was also a decent win but come on despite George Chuvalo having a granite chin, he is nothing special. He was always in the B class regarding Heavyweight rankings, and after George Foreman's loss to Muhammad Ali he was soundly beaten by Jimmy Young, then he retired and comeback and a beat a few stiffs, along with a few decent opponents like Bert Cooper, and an old washed up Gerry Cooney.

He then went onto challenge Evander Holyfield and lost soundly, despite giving a good effort but a loss is a loss, he then got a gift decision against the goodish Alex Stewart, was given a boxing lesson by Tommy Morrison. And please don't try and hype up Michael Moorer, he beat an Evander Holyfield that was having problems with his health at that time, and Michael Moorer still got a gift decision in that fight, and he was beaten to a pulp in a rematch against a 100 percent Evander Holyfield.

Michael Moorer was a good Light Heavyweight but at Heavyweight, he was goodish at best. He went life and death with Bert Cooper, was badly hurt against Alex Stewart, his chin was always pretty suspect at Heavyweight. And he was giving George Foreman a boxing lesson, until George Foreman got that homerun shot which was a hell of an achievement, but come off it Michael Moorer was one of the weakest champions in the modern era of the Heavyweights and you know it.

Then George Foreman's reign was quickly over when he defended it against Axel Schulz. And got another gift decision, and refused to give Axel Schulz a rematch which in turn got his title took off him. He then fought weak opposition like Lou Savarase, Crawford Grimsley, then come Shannon Briggs, and i have to admit i thought George Foreman beat Shannon Briggs, but the point im trying to make.

Is that combined with his two careers George Foreman only made 3 title defense's and his best wins were against Michael Moorer, Joe Frazier x2, Ken Norton, Ron Lyle, George Chuvlalo, Bert Cooper, Gregorio Peralta x2, Gerry Cooney, ETC.

Now if you honestly think taking that all into account, that George Foreman deserves to be top 20 of all time, then im quite speechless no offense, he suffered bad losses to Jimmy Young, Tommy Morrison, he also got atleast 3 gift decisions against mediocre opposition, i think George Foreman is a hell of a fighter and im not trying to discredit him.

But putting George Foreman as one of the best 20 fighters of all time, is just way off the mark IMO. I have him at 29 and i could have easily rated him lower, but i think thats a pretty fair rating, any higher and thats seriously pushing it IMO.