What are your honest opinions on Muhammad Ali?

Question

Was he the greatest heavyweight of all time

Answer 1

I always considered him as the best Boxer of all time.

Answer 2

muhummad ali was without question the only heavyweight champion that has been an impact on the sport, he has also defeated some of the toughest heavyweight fighters in the history of the division at its strongest point in history !!!

Answer 3

ooofff aaaallll ttttiiiimmmmeeee.

Answer 4

Wow @ the comment above. That's about the most ridiculuous statement I've ever read here on answers. Today's heavyweights would probably be beaten by yesterday's freakin' middleweights. Now way today's heavyweights would touch the heavyweights of Ali's era. Klitschko would be carried out of the ring on a stretcher even if he fought a mere contender in Ali's era. I wont even comment on Ruslan Chagaev.

Answer 5

He was good for his time, but since then we have boxers that would literally kill him today. Today's boxers are faster, stronger, and have better technique. I wouldn't even go as far to say that he was the best in his time, but certainly one of the most well known. Good chin and very quick on his feet.

Answer 6

Not only was he the greatest fighter, I think he is one of the greatest people of all time. He has spread a lot of goodwill throughout the world.

Answer 7

I gotta agree....that is the most retarded statement I have ever heard...and a rare one too.

Todays heavyweights are fat, slow and underskilled. Either that or just mammoth marginally good skilled boxers that get by on their size. If Lennox Lewis or EITHER of the Klitchko brothers were 6'1, we wouldnt even have a reason to talk about them. They would get trashed. People are going to be in for a serious shock when David Haye starts climbing ranks in the heavyweights.

Im also going to disagree about Mike Tyson destroying Ali. Young Mike Tyson fought a very VERY thin heavyweight division. When the division thickened up in the 90s he stayed at the bottom. Tysons prime stopped at twenty three...Alis talent and skills carried him into his thirties, and thru the top as well.

So far as a person, I respect Ali more than almost anyone. As much as he has gone thru physically, he always makes it his mission to bring happiness to the people around him. Thats resepctable.

Answer 8

For all the people on here who automatically assume Ali was the greatest just because he said so...

Did you know that in Ali's "prime" he was dropped by 180 lbs Henry Cooper? Or that a little man, Doug Jones wobbled him visibly in their fight?

This was before he was suspended from boxing...

There is this myth that Muhammad Ali was this UNBEATABLE force. He was quite beatable; in fact he has received around four or five GIFT decisions due to his name...

Ali called himself the greatest often enough that people started to call him that too, sportswriters caught on to this new breed of athlete...Ali was the first major self-promoter...he brought in the era of the egotistical athlete.

He is certainly one of the best heavyweights of all time, but in head-to-head competition, I can foresee a few greats beating him.

Let's not get carried away and say his "footwork" would enable him to dance circles around any great, such as Dempsey, Marciano, Holmes, Lewis, Holyfield, etc...He got caught during his prime by much, much lesser fighters.

Remember, his competition in the 1960s was not so great. By the time he fought Cleveland Williams, Williams was far-removed from his best. Liston threw the second fight. Henry Cooper and Doug Jones had him in trouble. He got pretty good gifts against Young and Norton.

Chuck Wepner dropped him and Who the h**l is Sonny Banks?

Ali was an all-time great, but I don’t blindly buy into the hype that he easily beats any one on any day as so many uninformed fans do.

Answer 9

Many people dont even consider him a FIGHTER, he just runs circles around you until your tired and then he gets on you, he's the greatest because of how he dominated his era, but in his era there wasnt many good fighters exept for like Fraizer and Norton and they both beat him, Tyson will demolish Ali prime for prime, greatest doesnt mean best in every case.

Answer 10

muhammad ali was without a doubt the greatest boxer of all time, it doesnt matter who he fought when he fought them or where he fought them, he would float like a butterfly and sting like a bee....so what if he got hit a few times in the 1st few rounds, he wore out his opponents down then crushed them.  if he woulda been in mike tysons time he woulda whooped him like there was no tomorrow.  he invented rap, he predicted rounds, he was and still is a hero to many, and he wasnt even allowed to fight for 3 and a half years because of refusing to go to war, i can say i dont think anyone else in the boxing world can do that, and at age 32 he beat a 24 year old  george foreman to regain what was rightfully his in one of the greatest matches of all time...rumble in the jungle....so people can say what they wanna  say about him HE IS THE GREATEST BOXER OF ALL TIME...and hes a baaaaad man

Answer 11

A 20 year old mike tyson would have destroyed him in three rounds. A 20 year old mike tyson would have beaten any heavyweight in their prime hands down. Conversation over!

Answer 12

honestly he was the greatest heavyweight of all time, in his prime he was so dominant that he made really good boxers look stupid, he toyed with people and then destroyed them, he was also the originator of the trash talk, he also fought 15 round fights which isnt even done now a days.