Isn't the current sports community a little quick to claim that Ali was the greatest fighter?

Question

There seems to be many Ali wins that made people scratch their heads in suspicion i.e.:

Ali-Norton III

Ali-Shavers

Ali-Cooper I (supposedly ripped glove)

There were also the humiliating losses to Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick. At the time, people thought that Ali had destroyed his reputation, and for years after, people would remember Ali as the one who should have retired much sooner instead of making a fool of himself.

Now, it seems that all that is forgotten and people just want to go ahead and consider him the greatest fighter of all, even better than Joe Louis.

Aren't we just a little blinded by our own insistence to give credit to a man that we just like a lot because of reasons other than boxing? Would we be giving this much credit to a less colorful man like Joe Frazier if he had the same career?

Frazier was as good as Ali anyway, but we don't give him credit. When Frazier beat Ali, everyone said that Ali was the real winner just because of Ali's personality.

Answer 1

i would respect ali a lot of eastern euros  and cubans could fight as professionals back then like (at least russsians) do now!i doubt he would even hold the belt 3 months if this was the case (with his weak punches)

Answer 2

Ali would never have won a title if dundee hadnt have split the glove

Answer 3

Yes they are a little rushed in that department.but realize ali did things that no other athlete has ever down. He shocked the american people)converting to islam, denying going into the draft, being banned for 3 years, etc) and stood up for his rights all at the same time. dare we say he was a civil rights figure and activist?? What made ali the greatest wasn;t always inside the ring. I think that ali would have lost to a couple of boxers if their was a prime ali vs prime whoever, but the point is ali dealt with social pressures that no one has ever dealt with. You had a guy who was spoke his mind and gave honesty when he could. most athletes now are afraid to give even a decent sound bite nowadays. he traveled the world and even when he lost those fights he didn't back down or dodge them.  Personality goes a long way when it deals with a sport like boxing. ali had the best one because he wasn't billed as the most dangerous man or the second coming. If you rememeber most people hated ali and was proud to see him lose to frazier and thought he turned his back on america by his vietnam opposition.

Answer 4

no he said he was but does that count?? ali said ray robbinson

was the best boxer all time..

at that hight weight they will never have the skills as a smaller man....

he might have at his weight but not the best boxer pound 4 pound skill speed movement defence...no he might not make in to the top 10 best . 1st man you think of in boxing ali jumps at you he is well khow so even fans who never seen him say he is the best i dont understand that but he was good but not the best..

Answer 5

Ali was a phony, most ofhis fights were fixed. Look at the Liston vs. Ali fight, Liston was knocked out by a punch that didn't even hit him. Tell me that fight wasn't fixed.

Answer 6

Ok First of all Ali fought the later part of his career while he had Parkinson's!!! And he still won fights!

Ali lost his first fight after being out of the ring 3 years, he had two warm up fights then stepped in with Frazier. If Ali had not have lost those 3 years he would have beaten Frazier. You could tell in that fight his legs were just not as quick as they once where.

In his first loss to Norton, Ali broke his jaw in the 4th round and still finished the fight, then came back to beat Norton twice.

By the late 70's he was starting to feel the effects of Parkinson's, In order to get up for the fight with Berbick and Holmes he was taking a growth hormone just so he could train, hes probably lucky to be alive. No one that beat Ali late in his career go around bragging about it.

Was Ali the greatest boxer of all time? No..Id give it to Sugar Ray Robinson.

Was he the best Heavyweight of all time? Absolutely!

Muhammad Transcends boxing, hes bigger then the sport itself. Here's what George Foreman wrote of Ali

http://georgeforeman.com/puncherpages/al...

Ali was an inspiration of a Nation, I could go into more detail but ive done it too many times and have answered similar questions like this too much. If you don't understand why Ali was the greatest then you just don't understand the fighting spirit and you have missed the point completely.

Jon -  don't talk about what you don't know, Ali landed a right overhand loop sort of punch he called the anchor punch, and it did land and it landed flush, It did not seem that it should have had enough power to knock Liston out but it was enough to put him down, Its possible Liston took a dive on the word of the mafia or he just wanted an easy pay day. But It don't really matter because Ali made him quit on his stool in the first fight so the second fight is irrelevant anyways.