Best Cruiserweights of all-time

joe louis would be a cruiser today.rocky marciano a small cruiser...even holmes and ali could make cruiser limit,but they have the height,reach and speed to compete with hw's

 

so the best cruiser for me would be joe louis,with rocky marciano coming second.

 

Since it was officially recognized as a division I'd say Holyfield has been its greatest champion

 

No they couldn't.

Patterson yes. Holmes or Ali? No.

 

Not even young Ali? Wasn't he around 215 before the layoff? I think he could cut 15 pounds to make Cruiserweight.

Older Ali was heavier, but he was a little soft too. He had weight to lose, but after his layoff I doubt he could have made 200.

 

That isn't how that works.

https://imgflip.com/i/j0zu1

 

Ok I could be thinking this out wrong, but I'll explain my logic. Since Ali was a heavyweight he probably wasn't cutting weight because there is no heavyweight limit. 215 was probably his walk around weight right? So couldn't he just cut 15 pounds and then rehydrate?

 

I mean, in the very beginning, in his teens, pre-Moore, he technically was a cruiserweight - but from then on Ali grew into his frame and getting under 200lbs anytime beyond Moore would have been ill-advised. He would've been a zombie.

The closest he ever got again was Cooper II, weighing 201½, and he was honestly pretty ineffective that night by prime Clay standards.

 

In his 60's prime I believe Muhammad Ali would be much too lean to shed 15 pounds and become a cruiserweght, if he were to do so he'd most likely be risking serious danger because Muhammad Ali would most likely be like a zombie out there. The only case otherwise would be to say
"Well he is Muhammad Ali and he could pull off a miracle."
Starting off his career though he was in the 190s but he packed on too much muscle mass as the 1960's wore on. Get a good look at him against Sonny Liston and the check him out in the Cleveland Williams fight if you don't believe me.

 

With day before weigh in's I just think it's possible for Ali to cut 15 pounds and then rehydrate.

Kovalev I think rehydrated from 175 to 189 pounds for the Pascal fight. And he looked fine.

 

Magne Havna

 

No, 215 was his effective fighting weight. That is what he weighed on average coming into the ring after training camp, which he probably entered having ballooned to a bit more in between fights. (though not too much, because he was a pretty consummate professional and besides, except for '64 where he only fought Liston and the lost years of 68 & 69, he kept a pretty busy schedule)

Cutting weight is bad for you. It wasn't common practice back in that era, with same-day weigh-ins. (day-before has only been the norm for under 3 decades)

Who knows how much it would cut into Ali's effectiveness, take away from his time & energy focused on actual training in camp, and cause him adverse bodily stress, to force his body to endure dehydrating 15lbs or more to make a 200lb cap? He would look downright sickly even making the attempt, IMO, as there wasn't a whole lot of excess to cut in the first place once he grew into his man-size by the early 60's, from Moore on.

 

I believe Ali was 211 1/2, 212 & 214 in his last fights before the exile.
He was very lean. Now even then he COULD make CW, by losing muscle &/or dehydrating. He likely could clean up at CW still at least WITH day before weigh ins.

But so what? So maube he would be right around Holyfield's quality, around the best ever, because he would not be as good as at his normal weight.
Holyfield without all the lifting & PEDs is a natural CW.

 

For ****s sake, I'm honestly sick to death of this hypothetical past heavyweights being treated as Cruiserweight bull ****.

I think the top 4 names are almost shoe ins for me. Holyfield is clearly 1, we don't need to debate this. The next 3 would go De Leon, Nelson (whether you like his style or not) and Haye. I don't think you can argue with that too much, fair Haye had a very brief spell at the top, but to unify a division! That just doesn't happen, so he should be given a lot of credit and his one legit loss was to a former titleist in just his 10th fight

Top 10 gets a bit iffy despite watching a lot of fights and my general knowledge of the cruiser weights being fairly decent. Wamba, Gomez probably come next, but from then I'd just be picking names out my head. You could even argue a case for Steve Cunningham with his wins over Jones, Huck and Wlodarczyk generally getting better with time.