Who is the greatest heavyweight boxing champion, ever?
Here follows the career record of Theagenes, according to the inscription at the shrine of Thasos at Delphi: Olympic Games: 2 victories (1 boxing, 1 pankration) Pythian Games: 3 boxing Isthmian Games: 9 boxing, 1 pankration Nemean Games: 9 boxing 1300 total victories Unbeaten at boxing for 22 years
A book I read has a panel of experts choosing the best ones since Marquess of Queensberry rules were adopted about 1882. Their consensus is that Jim Jeffries was best, and Jack Johnson was second. Casssius Clay was rated tenth. I’ll go along with experts, not naive men. I cannot understand why so many gullible people say Clay was greatest. If he really was, he wouldn’t need to tell us. When you say, “ever”, one must consider Polydeuces, Amycus and Epeus of 1200 BC, Polydamas and Milon of 500 BC, Jem Belcher the 1800 champ, John Heenan and Tom Sayer who fought for the title in 1860, John L. Sullivan and Jake Kilrain who fought the first Marquess of Queensberry bout in 1882 and many others.
my vote goes to Ali, Marciano greatest victories came at the expense of over the hill fighters, walcott charles archie moore joe louis sounds impressive but all were past their best with possibly the exception of ezzard charles who might have had some gas left in the tank, rocks last fight was against archie moore rock won in 9 hard rds getting off the canvas, after the fight rock retired and archie moore went on to face floyd patterson for the vacant belt and moore was badly outclassed getting stopped in 5, after a young talented but untested clay took moore apart in rd 4 also rock was too small and would only be a cruiserweight today, robinson wasa welterweight and middleweight, joe louis was good better than rocky but a suspect jaw, in order ALI, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson,Sonny Liston, Joe Louis
