In viewing every boxer who claimed to be a heavyweight champion I took a part of less than a dozen to produce a combination that would bring about the best heavyweight of all time.
It you take the POWER of Joe “The Brown Bomber” Louis, 66-3 with 52 knockouts. Louis was 58-1 with 49 knockouts when he lost to Ezzard Charles in 1950. In a rematch with Max Schmeling who he lost his first fight to Louis knocked out Schmeling in a one round. Louis was 36 years-old at the time. He still holds the record among heavyweights of 25 title defenses.
If you take the JAB of Sonny Liston who knocked out the teeth of Wayne Bethea with that jab this would be a special ingredient. Bethea’s trainer question why he wouldn’t go out for the second round until he showed his teeth missing. Liston also was known while receiving the referee’s instructions prior to the first round he had “the stare” that caused “the scare” of many an opponent. He was 50-4 with 39 knockouts. Liston lost to Marty Marshall and defeated him twice afterwards.
Take the FEROCIOUSNESS of Jack “Manassa Mauler” Dempsey and you know he will never let up on his opponent. He was 54-6-9 with 44 knockouts. The beating he gave to 6:06 Jess Willard caused Willard’s people to think Dempsey’s gloves were “loaded!” It seemed to this writer that Mike Tyson copied a lot of Dempsey’s aggressiveness.
Take the SUPERIORITY of Jack “Galveston Giant” Johnson, 71-11-1 with 35 knockouts became the first black world champion and defied all people who had a problem with it. Ring Magazine’s Nat Fleisher called him the greatest heavyweight of all time.
Take the STRENGTH of James J. “The Boilermaker” Jeffries, 19-1-2 with 16 knockouts. He used his superior strength to defeat many an opponent.
Take the fighter who knew how to “BREAK DOWN” an opponent like no other and you have Rocky Marciano, 49-0 with 43 knockouts. He punished his opponent’s arms to the point they could hardly lift them. He even did it to Muhammad Ali for a computer fight.
Speaking of Ali take his SPEED of hand and footwork and like Johnson his brashness and you knew he could hold his own with any opponent. He was 56-5 with 37 stoppages. There were fights he “called the round of the stoppage” and was rarely wrong. He once said “I jumped out of bed and turned off the lights and was back in bed before they went out!”
Put all these ingredients of POWER, JAB, FEROCIOUSNESS, SUPERIORITY, STRENGTH, BREAK DOWN and SPEED of these boxers and you have seven ingredients to be called “the best!”