Top Ten Heavyweights of All Time

[Spicoli]

I do not want to continue to pick apart Holyfield heavyweight career as champion but when he beat an "old" and "whiny" Holmes, Larry said he was strong but not that skilled compared to the fighters he fought when he was at his peak.

This implied that he would have beaten Evander as was not as good as some of the boxers he faced when he was champion. Holyfield relied on his fitness, activity and conditioning to beat his opponents but he could be out boxed by Bowe, Moorer and Lewis. Usyk would have that chance at heavyweight less so at cruiserweight.

Incidentally @Spicoli, Mercer was dumb for falling into the traps that Holmes set him when he lost to him. Also Mercer beat Morrison should not mean that much of a victory when Tommy was going to get knocked out in a round by Bent.

I mean it's Larry Holmes, what do we expect him to say when discussing himself from the holy mount of Sir Larry . Absolutely no idea about hypotheticals but a former champ can have plenty of opinion on competition over the decades. But I struggle to see a tip top Holyfield being in awe or not measuring up as "good" as a Norton, Witherspoon or Shavers. Let alone a Scott Ledoux, Tex Cobb or David Bey . No secret Holyfield was no friend of a steady mobile jab. Bowe sat in, swapped and even Lewis sat in and exchanged when he had to especially in rematch where their jabs were fairly even up. No one, save for Lewis I tbh, was really boxing top Holyfield's ears without getting sucked into exchanges, taking a wobble or dropped in order to maintain ring real estate. That's what happens when the very best face one another, multiple times.

Wouldn't say Mercer was dumb. Outfoxed, outboxed and out experienced vs Holmes, absolutely. His biggest mistake along with so many fans pre Holmes was believing his own headlines and savagery fresh off beating Morrison literally senseless and damn near fatal. It was assumed by mass majority all he had to do was attack and overwhelm an aged 'old whiny' Holmes and Holmes would get ground down and cave. Ironically Mercers best moment was very early on when he was jabbing with Holmes and hurt him badly. Mercer always had a killer short power jab when it was on and his head was in it. The Morrison fight is a good example of Ray being far more than just a iron chinned tank. The man could box and he though it was 4,5 rounds he was setting traps for young all offence Morrison from the very start. You could see it, and Ray knew it. To this day people saw that fight and said it was Morrison outboxing Mercer...I never saw that. Exact opposite really. You say the win didn't mean much buuut it did mean enough to win him a championship. Which seems to be the most important factor in ranking ATG heavy's for some . It also would help propel Mercer, regardless of Holmes, into two superb fights/wars with both Lewis and Holyfield. Back to back. And sure Morrison got iced by Bentt a couple years later...but that didn't stop Lewis from facing such a 'used up' fighter another two years later. The irony is that it was after Lewis was splattered by McCall and during his own 'rebuild'. That's the thing about 'what ifs' and a magnifying glass put on records. It's an across the board thing fans do. But at some points it becomes tearing into the very same fighters we rank as the very best or ATG. Round and round it goes.

and btw Holyfield beat Mercer cleaner and wider than Lewis

[X]

Louis
Ali
Johnson
Dempsey
Foreman
Liston
Lewis
Usyk (hopefully not me showing recency bias there)
Frazier
Marciano

Honourable mentions to Tyson, Jeffries, Holmes too