Top Ten Heavyweight Champions - Boxing. Muhammad Ali made people believe in him and inspired them to believe in themselves. Here are the ten best heavyweights of all time. In the last twenty years, however, after the in and out of ring demise of Mike Tyson and emergence of mixed martial arts as an alternative form of combat, the heavyweight crown has been placed on a dresser in the rear bedroom and its holders have become as obscure as utility outfielders. Let us set aside the present and recall the days of more gifted and charismatic champions. Here are the ten best of all time. Jack Johnson – The Galveston Giant had more trouble battling white supremacists than boxers in the ring. He dominated a series of opponents for more than a decade while titleholders, promoters, and politicians connived to deny him a championship fight. In 1. 90. 8, when Johnson was thirty years old, the establishment couldn’t say no anymore, and he journeyed to Australia to batter tiny Tommy Burns and claim the crown. Takamura Mamoru (.Johnson was a great boxer and good power puncher and beat everyone until, as an overweight drinker and world traveler at age thirty- seven, he tired under Cuban sun and was nailed on the jaw by young giant Jess Willard. Sonny Liston – His name still evokes images of a menacing ex- convict who used long and powerful arms to chop down more than three dozen opponents, in particular the popular but much smaller Floyd Patterson while winning the title by first round knockout. He dispatched Patterson the same way in a rematch. After that he in 1. Cassius Clay, who in part appeared to be as afraid of him as other opponents but also called him ugly and a bear and said he was going to whip him. Clay at age twenty- two was and remains the quickest heavyweight ever, and his lateral movement and jabs and overhand rights befuddled and bruised Liston who retired after the sixth round with a strained shoulder and shattered psyche. In their rematch the champion, rechristened Muhammad Ali, threw a right that may have landed but certainly not with enough force to destroy sturdy Liston, who refused to get up. The two debacles against Ali should not diminish Liston’s historical standing. Every man has his nemesis, and most have several. Sonny Liston outslugged most people but had less success with personal demons, and died of a heroin overdose in 1. Ken Norton – The former marine with a classic physique forever placed his name in the fistic pantheon by hammering Muhammad Ali in three fights. During the first bout, in March 1. Norton broke Ali’s jaw and won a split decision that one myopic judge gave to Ali. I attended their next fight, in September that year at the Forum in Los Angeles, and watched Ali, unable to move as he had before banishment, often get tagged. Unlike in their first fight, though, Ali also inflicted damage and won a disputed split decision. About that, Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray wrote, and I paraphrase only a bit if at all: “If Ali won that fight then Japan won World War II.” In his next fight Norton was destroyed by George Foreman in the second round but then stopped seven straight opponents before meeting Ali again, in 1. Norton was more aggressive as Ali masochistically leaned against the ropes, but also slow danced and scored enough to make it close at the bell when Norton screamed, “I beat you. I beat you.” The judges unanimously disagreed and Norton wept in the ring. The fairest way to assess their three fights is to say Norton at minimum fought Ali to a draw and probably had an edge. Mike Tyson – In the mid- 1. TV sports news watchers in a pre- internet era. At age twenty he flattened Trevor Berbick to become the youngest heavyweight champion. During his prime few could have survived Mike Tyson, but like all fighters he proved to have vulnerabilities. When Tyson was twenty- three, before a nearly- silent crowd of boxing neophytes in Tokyo, James “Buster” Douglas popped him with long left jabs and strong straight rights, dominated the fight if not two of the three scorecards, survived a Tyson uppercut to arise at the count of nine in round eight, and in the tenth delivered a pulverizing uppercut and several more punches that left the champion on the canvas as he groped for a mouthpiece he shoved partially into his mouth while being counted out. At age twenty- five Mike Tyson was convicted of rape and served three years in prison. Ultimate Source for Latest Boxing News. The English version offers selected articles from. Wonder Woman had some great moments. Seeing a woman smash a soldier into mush with her shield, toss a tank over people’s heads, and commit willful acts of. This domain name is for sale (100,000 USD): uploading.com Write us for more information @. ![]() The Alfasud is here. Disclaimer: You are leaving a Gizmodo Media Group, LLC website and going to a third party site, which is subject to its own privacy. All Rights Reserved. All Lyrics displayed by LyricsPlanet.com are property of their respective owners. Tacoma, the new game from the makers of Gone Home, is coming to PC and Xbox One on August 2. That’s surprisingly soon! The game is about uncovering “the mysteries. ![]() After his release he beat several overmatched foes before Evander Holyfield defeated him by technical knockout and won their rematch as a frustrated Tyson twice bit Holyfield’s ears. The glory years never returned but no fan will forget his sensational rise. Joe Frazier – As with Ken Norton and Sonny Liston, this fighter’s name will always be joined to that of Muhammad Ali, who before their first fight, in 1. Frazier and called him ugly. Ali should have remembered, after three and a half years in exile, that he no longer “floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee.” He’d become a heavier, often flat- footed fighter who tragically concluded, starting with this fight, that the best way to tire out a supremely- conditioned opponent was to let him use Ali’s head and torso as a heavy bag. Frazier obliged, ripping countless left hooks—one of the finest in boxing history—into Ali’s body and right side of his face. Ali had begun the fight decisively, battering Frazier’s head with combinations, but Smokin’ Joe got stronger, or weakened less, and staggered Ali a couple of times and ensured victory by flooring him with another explosive left hook in the fifteenth round. Joe Frazier won a unanimous decision but it was a Pyrrhic victory, as it would have been for Ali. Both men had to be hospitalized, Frazier even longer than Ali, and it’s certain their brains suffered permanent damage. In their third meeting, the “Thrilla in Manila” in 1. Ali knocking Frazier’s bloody mouthpiece onto the canvas and continuing with power punches that rendered Joe unable to come out for the final round. The real outcome of the fight: Ali, once the world’s most dynamic talker and entertainer, has been silent nearly thirty years, and Frazier garbled words in his final years. He died of liver cancer at age sixty- seven. Joe Louis – Like Muhammad Ali a generation later, Louis was even more important as an inspiration than a fighter. During an era when blacks were segregated and had no vote and couldn’t live or work where they wanted, the Brown Bomber showed they could overcome. If they worked hard enough, they could be like Joe Louis. They could knock the man on his ass. That’s what Joe Louis did better than anyone until George Foreman. During an unprecedented twelve years as heavyweight champion, he put people on the canvas with short, pulverizing combinations, and listeners huddled around their radios knew what awaited his opponents. The most celebrated fight for Joe Louis was his second against Max Schmeling. In 1. 93. 6 the former heavyweight champion, a German, though not a Nazi, had clipped Louis on the chin with his best punch, an overhand right, dropping him in the fourth round. Louis later said he didn’t remember anything the rest of the fight, which lasted until he was knocked out in the twelfth round Two years later, an angry and focused and more mature Louis unleashed one of the most horrific one- round beatings in ring annals, registering a tangible victory over Der Max and a symbolic one over fascism. George Foreman – At age nineteen, during the 1. Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Foreman established that he wielded a left jab like most boxers’ power punch and a right hand that immediately weakened strong men. He launched his professional career with a series of victories, most by knockout, and in January 1. Jamaica to challenge the heavyweight champion, Smokin’ Joe Frazier, the undefeated conqueror of Muhammad and a man believed to be unstoppable. Foreman lambasted Frazier, knocking him down six times during two rounds of what remains the most devastating display of knockout power. The fight was staged in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Congo) and billed “The Rumble in the Jungle.” Ali again used his “rope- a- dope” tactics, his back on the ropes and his arms a shield from elbows in his stomach to gloves over his face. Though incomparably powerful, Foreman was exposed as a slow puncher and Ali repeatedly dodged the champion’s gloves, pushed him around, and nailed him with sharp punches. Suddenly, in round eight, Ali sprang from the ropes and hit a tiring Foreman on the jaw with the best overhand right of his career, and the mammoth champion folded at the waist, hit the canvas, and was unable to rise before the ten- count. From my seat in Sacramento’s aged Memorial Auditorium, I stood in homage. Foreman stopped Lyle in the fifth round, but the years of lopsided wins had ended. In 1. 97. 7 slick boxer Jimmy Young outmaneuvered Foreman, floored him in the final round, and earned a unanimous decision. Foreman, only twenty- eight years old, surprised fans by retiring. Many assumed this farewell, like most in boxing, would be brief. It wasn’t. Ten years later Foreman announced his comeback, which seemed preposterous. He was not only old for a boxer and long inactive but carried forty pounds of flab. Many spectators and sportswriters sneered at the sometimes clumsy former champion. Foreman ignored them and again started knocking people out and after winning twenty- four straight fights, all but one by stoppage, he at age forty- one challenged Evander Holyfield for the heavyweight title. Holyfield moved and punched too quickly for the ponderous challenger, and after Foreman’s loss by unanimous decision most observers assumed he would permanently retire. He instead won three fights before losing a decision to Tommy Morrison, a good but not stellar fighter. The setback serendipitously led, more than a year later, to a title fight with undefeated Michael Moorer. For ten rounds the forty- five- year old Foreman was pounded by the quick and strong Moorer. Video News - CNN. Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.
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