joe louis - although highly regarded look at who his greatest victory was against.max Schmeling this boxer and this fight is more famous for the whole nazi issue's surrounding it,it is a great historilcal fight but Schmeling was a good boxer at best
marciano - fought in one of the weakest eras of heavyweight,his most impressive victories were over joe walccott and joe louis and maybe archie moore,all of whom were right at the end of their careers and way past their prime,
sugar ray robinson - some of the purists get caught way too up in the hype of this guy,sure he was influential,but apart from jack lamotta who did he fight that was an all time great
muhammad ali - fought in the greatest era of heavyweight boxing,and one of the most competitive divisions of any era and ruled,he ruled in the 1960's lost three years of his boxing career right when he was in his prime,fought the greatest heavyweights ever and won
no other boxer has a more impressive reseme on their record
frazier 2x
norton 2x
liston 2x
patterson 2x
liston 2x
cooper 2x
chavalo 2x
quarry 2x
Oscar Bonavena(the only time anybody has ever stopped Bonavena)
ellis
foreman(only time anybody has ever stopped foreman,foreman was undefeated at the time)
joe bugner
ron lyle
bob foster
earnier shavers
earnier terrell
karl midenbrager
and so forth
the likes of louis and marciano would dream to have those names on their records but they dont
their is alot of hype surrounding ali,created by himself but that motherfucker has more than lived up to it than any boxer in history
never ducked anybody,while everbody was ducking sonny liston he stepped up,wasnt given a hope in hell,he said he would stop liston and he did
when foreman was destroying everybody he stepped up and and again 10 years later while many argue that ali wasnt even in his prime,nobody have him a chance in hell,said he was gonna stop foreman and he did remeining the only man to do so
fought guys who were a nightmare style up for him(norton and frazier)and still came out on top,not many guys come out on top of such style ups,
and when he would lose a fight he always tracked down that person beat them and later on gave them a rematch that is a true champion
if he was in any condition he would have given spinks a rematch and would have sought out rematches with holmes and berbick
some guy said ali didnt have heart(wtf) norton broke his jaw in the second round and he fought and still fought for another 30 minutesm,always fought dangerous guys who everybody was scared of,if Ali didnt have heart then why did he refuse to quit against larry holmes when he was getting seriously hurt
ali is one of the bravest boxers to ever step foot in a ring
so there you go,i could go on forever but there isnt much point,the few paragraphs proves why ali is the greatest(lol like the position as number one heavyweight was ever in dispute :icon_chee)
ali talked a good fight and he could fight a good fight,marciano and louis no offense but are not even in the same league as ali
the second greatest heavyweight and arguably the most underrated also has to be george foreman he would have destroyed both marciano and louis
Muhammad Ali is absolutely one of the greatest of All-Time.
However, a few details about the PRIME Ali that a few of you may not be aware of.
Don't want to get into too much detail about the faded Ali in the mid to late 70's who benefited from gift-decisions and ring-robberies.
In 1963, 185 lb Henry Cooper damn near knocked out Ali with a single left hook right near the end of the rd.
If Angie didn't split Ali's glove to buy time, Cooper may've got him.
Also in 1963, 188 lb Doug Jones beat Ali but was robbed in the decision. Ali was booed out of Madison Square Garden.
Ali fought 3 fights in 1963. The other fight was against a journeyman named Charley Powell.
Somehow these last 2 questionable wins over Cooper and Doug Jones earned Ali a shot at Sonny Liston in early '64.
191 lb Sonny Banks dropped Ali in 1962 with a single left hook.
George Chuvalo tore Ali's body apart for 15 rds in 1966, and though George didn't win the fight, he ought to have been awarded a few more rds for the relentless body attack.
It wasn't so one-sided as people like to think.
People also forget: Ali basically quit in his first title challenge of Sonny Liston in 1964 citing Liston cheating by robbing linament into his eyes.
Ali wanted to cut the gloves off to prove dirty things were afoot, and only Angelo Dundee kept Ali in that fight.
That's all the prime Ali of the 60's.
I believe Ali was one of the great ones, but I don't think he was absolute "The Greatest."
Too many stylistic flaws which he overcame with speed and athleticism.
Ali in the 70's? Shenanigans, a few clear losses, some ring-robberies and some gift decisions.
Ali's many wins still outshine the shortcomings especially in beating two murderous punchers who were deemed unbeatable in Sonny Liston and George Foreman.
Muhammad Ali fought 'em all.
Tremendous toughness and Heart displayed by Ali in the 70's which Ali often had to rely on after the speed of his youth was gone.
^ Not meant at all as a hit-piece, webeballin (nice username by the way), but these shortcomings must be considered when assessing a fighter.