Who was better in his respective sport: Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali

Fedorgasm said:
No, being the underdog means that people think you're not the best, and you prove them wrong.

Jordan was the underdog vs the Pistons and he lost. He was the underdog in his post baseball season and he lost. He was the underdog on the wizards and he lost.

Basically every time the deck was stacked against him, he lost. He only won when the deck was stacked in his favor.
Click to expand...
Lol so he had the ability to win 6 rings with only one superstar on his team. He’s got a good ability to stack the deck huh?
 
Ali couldn't just pass the rock off if he got himself into trouble.
 
Don Bradman is the best sportsperson ever; held out statistically and anecdotely.
 
Big Tuppy Hole said:
why does 1 need to be better than the other?
Click to expand...

Nailed it. Trying to compare athletes from two vastly different sports is dumb and subjective to asinine opinions.
 
I think this goes past the usual "apples and oranges".

Not only it's two totally different activities, but one is a one-on-one fight, and the other, a team game.

Maybe we should add Carl Lewis, Usain Bolt, Eddie Merckx and Pélé to the mix
 
Really hard to compare. I guess if I had to answer I'd go Jordan because he would win a GOAT poll of basketball fans by a country mile. Whereas Ali might get a plurality of boxing fans (even that is highly questionable), but certainly not the type of consensus Jordan gets.
 
Ali is better than mj in every way. Better father husband and actually gave his name for civil rights movement.
Mj gave his name to make money and never looked back..
Also mj is lucky he never met the Dream in the Finals. Ali went out on his shield and didn't duck.
 
Last edited:
Bargey said:
Lol so he had the ability to win 6 rings with only one superstar on his team. He’s got a good ability to stack the deck huh?
Click to expand...
Yes. We should totally pretend Scottie Pippen wasn't a superstar just so you can win this argument.
 
Fedorgasm said:
Ali.

Jordan was never the underdog in any of his victories. When the team around him wasn't that great, he lost to the Pistons in the playoffs.

When the team around him was better, he was expected to win and he did.
Click to expand...

But team sports and boxing have different ways of competing.

Jordan was young and hadn't hit his prime yet he had to go against heavy favorites in the Celtics and Pistons. That's like Ali (or any boxer) having to face champions from the very beginning of their careers. No matter how good you are, you WILL lose. Ali faced Sonny Liston 4 years and 20 fights into his pro career.

Anyway, Jordan is the almost undisputed GOAT in basketball. Ali is top 5 or even top 10 in boxing. Few have him at #1.
 
Fedorgasm said:
My fault. I see how you meant it now.

I still say Ali is better.
Click to expand...
All cool. That’s his moniker but like has been said before, he’s barely top 10 in boxing while MJ is considered the greatest ever by virtually everyone except a couple of idiots on FX1 like Cowdung and Nick Wright.
 
MusterX said:
Easy question. Michael Jordan is widely considered the greatest basketball player of all time. Ali, while great, is not considered the greatest of all time except by a minority.

Answer: Michael Jordan was greatest in his respective sport.
Click to expand...
Actually most fans consider Ali the GOAT but most boxing historians consider him #2 behind SRR

Jordan is greater as both historians and fans consider him the GOAT
 
IloveTHIS said:
Ali vis way bigger cultural impact outside of his sport.

There will be another Jordan. Hell there will be many Jordans in time. There will never be another Ali

Technically I guess Jordan dominated basketball harder than Ali did boxing, but Ali lost out on over 2 years of his prime and still did incredible things
Click to expand...

Cultural impact could be debated. I'd still go with Ali, but MJ's logo made him a billionaire off of shoes.
 
There's a handful of athletes that synonymous with their sport, to the point where they become bigger than the sport itself:

MJ
Ali
Babe Ruth
Gretzky
Tiger(arguably Nicholaus)


They are the rough equivalents in their respective sports.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,907
Messages
55,454,586
Members
174,787
Latest member
Gladiator47

Share this page

Back
Top