Ranking the 10 Greatest American Heavyweights in Boxing History

All-time heavyweight boxing rankings are among the most reliable argument starters when it comes to sports talk. It's a subject where even the most casual fans will insist they have great insight. 

Focused on the gloved era, it is a list dominated almost exclusively by United States citizens. Excluding international fighters only saves me having to grapple with where to place Lennox Lewis, the Klitschko brothers and Sam Langford. 

For this rating, I've tried to balance quality of resume alongside how I feel the ranked fighters would match up head-to-head.

Realistically, on any given night of their prime years, any fighter on this list might beat any other. 

Honorable Mentions

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1. Fans of Rocky Marciano will let me have it in the comments section, I'm sure.
His resume is better than it's given credit for at times. Two wins each over Ezzard Charles and Joe Walcott are impressive achievements. Beating Joe Louis, even when the Bomber was 37, can't be dismissed as meaningless. 

But ultimately, I don't see the Rock beating anybody on the list above him head-to-head, and most of them also have stronger resumes. 

2. I often see Jack Dempsey in the top 10, and there's a case for him. But his resume is not as good as his contemporary, Harry Wills, and the man who was out-jabbed by Gene Tunney is not beating most of the fighters in my top 10. 

3. Jim Jeffries retired undefeated in 1904 and had been retired and growing fat for over half a decade on his farm when he was lured back to face Jack Johnson. He ducked Johnson, and other African-American fighters, though, so his resume is weaker for it.

But he was a tremendous athlete and an amazing physical specimen. Although he fought over a century ago, he would have the size to be extremely competitive today. 

10. Sonny Liston

Sonny Liston is a tragic enigma. In the early 1950s, Liston emerged from obscurity and prison to become the Golden Gloves champion of the world. By the time he knocked out Floyd Patterson to earn the heavyweight championship in 1962, he was listed as 32 years of age, but might have been as much as a half decade older. 

At 6'1" and around 220 pounds, Liston does not sound like a giant to modern readers. But a close examination of his physical characteristics reveal that Liston indeed possessed the upper body of a giant. 

Liston's reach was 84", standard for a seven-foot tall man. His hands were the biggest ever measured for a heavyweight champion, so large he had to have gloves specially made. 

Liston's resume never quite managed to live up to his fearsome potential. Two first-round KOs of Floyd Patterson are tremendous achievements. He also dominated legitimately good contenders like Eddie Machen, Zora Folley, Nino Valdes and Cleveland Williams. 

In Liston's final fight, in June 1970, he had an easier time with journeyman Chuck Wepner than Muhammad Ali would have with Wepner five years later. Six months after that fight, Liston was found dead in his Las Vegas home. 

9. Harry Wills

The fact that Harry Wills and Jack Dempsey never fought for the heavyweight title in the early 1920s is tragic shame. It could have been a classic fight between two all-time greats. 

As a matchup, it would have been close to a "pick-em" fight. But for this ranking, I've given an edge to Wills over Dempsey, based purely on the strength of resume.

Dempsey may have held the heavyweight championship, but Wills was fighting and beating the better opponents.

Aside from Dempsey and Wills, the best heavyweight fighters of the late teens and early 1920s were Sam Langford, Sam McVea and Joe Jeannette. Since all three were black men, like Wills, Dempsey faced none of them.

Wills, meanwhile, fought all three again and again and almost always won.

At 6'2" and 220 pounds, the Black Panther had the size to match up with heavyweights of any era.   

8. Mike Tyson

Even more than 30 years after his debut, Mike Tyson remains, alongside Muhammad Ali, the most recognizable boxing figure in the United States. He burst onto the scene as a ferocious teenage boy who was smashing grown men. 

As one of the sport's most exciting and charismatic champions, Tyson has a tendency to be both over- and under-rated. Some fans will insist he's the best heavyweight to ever live. Others maintain he was ultimately nothing more than hype. 

In truth, Iron Mike on his best night would be a potential nightmare for any other man who ever held the big belt. I wouldn't favor him against any of the fighters I ranked above him, but I wouldn't be dismissive of his chances either. 

Tyson was one of the most physically explosive punchers boxing has ever seen. Moreover, in his early years, he was a perfectly disciplined and coached assassin. He delivered his attacks in furious, yet precise, combinations. 

His resume is also better than many fans think. While his only win over another great fighter came against an over-the-hill Larry Holmes, during his first run he demolished a string of very tough contenders and belt-holders. 

7. Joe Frazier

In terms of heart and conditioning, no heavyweight in history surpassed Smoking Joe Frazier. Frazier was a compact and explosive fighter, possessing perhaps the greatest lead left hook in the history of the division. 

Frazier built his legend on being Muhammad Ali's greatest rival. Frazier was responsible for the Greatest's first loss, when they met for the first time, in 1971. In their third fight in Manila in 1975, Frazier pushed Ali to the brink of death. 

Frazier was a terrible matchup against George Foreman, however, and was hammered by Big George in the two worst losses of his career. 

I would put Frazier on very even terms in a head-to-head match up with Evander Holyfield or Mike Tyson, the two fighters I have ranked on either side of him. 

6. Evander Holyfield

Evander Holyfield is the greatest cruiserweight that ever lived. Even as a smaller heavyweight, he ranks among the greatest of all time. He fought like a tenacious pit bull, bullying and hammering much larger men. 

Holyfield's resume is long and filled with twists and turns. He lost fights an all-time great shouldn't lose but always seemed to come back from those losses to show greatness once more. 

Fighting in the alphabet-soup era, Holyfield managed to become some variety of heavyweight champion of the world five times. During three of those reigns, he had a legitimate claim to being the best heavyweight in the world. 

Claims for the crown aside, Holyfield was among the very best heavyweights of an extremely competitive heavyweight era. 

5. Larry Holmes

In a head-to-head matchup, I'd give Larry Holmes a good chance of beating any man ranked above him here. At 6'3" and with an 81" reach, Holmes had arguably the best jab in heavyweight history. He had an outstanding chin and tremendous conditioning in his prime. 

Holmes became the WBC champion in June 1978, when he bested Ken Norton by split decision in one of the all-time great heavyweight title fights. Battling in the heat of Las Vegas, Holmes proved his heart and gas tank against the indomitable Norton. 

For the next seven years and 20 fights, Holmes ruled the division. The record book shows him losing back-to-back fights against Michael Spinks in 1985 and 1986, but I'll forever dispute it, especially the second fight. 

If I had been the judge of those two fights, Holmes would have run his record to 50-0. 

An out-of-shape and over-the-hill Holmes was destroyed by Mike Tyson in four rounds in 1988. Yet Holmes would come back one more time in the 1990s and become a legitimate contender after turning 40. 

4. Jack Johnson

Although he was known as the "Galveston Giant," Jack Johnson was not really an especially large heavyweight, even for his own era. He was more of a defensive specialist than a slugger.

But he could crack when he needed to. And at just over six feet and an athletically built 220 pounds, he had the size to compete against the champions of any era when factoring his speed and ring generalship.

The strength of Johnson's resume rests less on who he beat while champion than upon who he beat prior to winning the belt.

While it is regrettable that Johnson never defended his belt against such African-American greats as Sam Langford, Sam McVea and Joe Jeannette, Johnson did beat all three men consistently, prior to breaking through himself and becoming the first-ever black heavyweight champion.

3. George Foreman

Both in resume and head-to-head matchup, George Foreman rates high. He had two quick TKO wins over one fighter on this list, Joe Frazier, and fought competitively against another, Evander Holyfield, when he was over 40. 

At his destructive best, Foreman was arguably the most dominant heavyweight puncher of all time. At his very best, Foreman was nearly 6'4" and weighed in at between about 220 and 225 pounds. 

There have been bigger heavyweight boxing champions, but I'd still like Foreman's chances of slugging it out against any of them. 

At 44, Foreman became the oldest man to ever win the heavyweight title, when he caught Michael Moorer out of nowhere in Round 10, in a fight where he was losing badly.

Foreman retired suddenly in his late 20s and did not return to the ring for a decade. Although I don't factor it into my ranking of him, I believe that if the young Foreman had somehow been able to tap into the wisdom the old Foreman would later possess, he could have been the greatest heavyweight who ever lived.  

2. Joe Louis

Boxing fans who point to the fact that Joe Louis knocked out big men like Primo Carnera as evidence of how he would have done against modern heavyweight giants like Lennox Lewis or the Klitschko brothers are kidding themselves. 

Lewis and the two Klitschkos possessed technical boxing skill that Carnera never approached. 

Just the same, fans who assure you that Louis would have been straight-out overwhelmed by the larger fighters are selling one of the great heroes from the history of the sport short.

Joe Louis had the ability to get into position to unload his right hand on any man who ever lived. And no man he hit solid with that punch would have been able to hope to get up from it.

Beyond head-to-head matchups, Louis has the heavyweight resume that surpasses all others. For 12 years and 25 defenses, he ruled the division.  

1. Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali had some close calls in his career, such as when he very nearly got knocked out by Henry Cooper in 1963, shortly before he captured the world title for the first time by defeating Sonny Liston. He lost bouts late in his career to lesser fighters such as Leon Spinks and Trevor Berbick. 

Yet across two decades, from the 1960s through into the second half of the 1970s, Ali was the towering figure who time and again ruled over the division during its most competitive era. 

In 1964, Ali captured the world title as a significant underdog, facing Sonny Liston, a champion many thought invincible. A decade later, he did the exact same thing against George Foreman.

In between those two bookmarks, he beat the top contenders from two different generations. He combined the size of a legitimate heavyweight with the speed and athleticism of a middleweight.

I'll ultimately take Ali's resume against any other in the history of the sport. I'll take him in the head-to-head matchup too.