Was Ali the greatest heavyweight of all time?

Was Ali the greatest heavyweight of all time? I don't know, but I think he beat the best competition.

 

Lewis could have been in the discussion had he beaten Tyson 91, bowe in 93 and Holyfield In 94-95

 

I disagree.

Douglas is a guy who really only had one good win.

This is a pretty damning loss for a great fighter.

At least if he lost to Holyfield, he would be losing to another great fighter, and one who could be built up further based upon the win.

 

But it would be harder to make excuses about Tyson not being prepared.

 

For sure. He's #3 for me.

 

Same for me.

 

Couldn't you just argue that he was unprepared/past his best when Holyfield beat him?

 

Tyson could have lost to a prime Godzilla and people would still feel the need to make excuses that he was untrained.

 

No, they'd point out what a notoriously dirty fighter Antonio Godzilla was, and they'd have a point. In the Kingsley Kong fight he appears to be spitting some kind of flammable liquid, and there's ear biting so frenzied it would make Tyson blush even in his craziest moment:

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Yes he is.

 

Ali , by a mile, he beat the best competition when the competition was relevant. Think about this, Ali beat 3 A.T.G's who are almost universally in everyone's top ten Heavys of all time. And they all were in their prime, or very close to it. A few of the very goods Ali fought were better than anyone Louis faced. Though I do have Louis at #2, because of his career accomplishments BUT, in my opnion in a head to head battle, I easily see Louis losing to a handful of heavys born during and after the 1940's. Still haven't seen the heavy I'd pick against prime Ali.

 

Joe Louis
Ali
Holmes

 

My thinking is that it would be harder to claim that he took Holy lightly since that was a pretty big fight, and Holy was seen as the only one remaining even resembling a threat.

But seeing how quickly excuses are being made for Tyson, you might well be right that they would have come in case of a loss to Holy too.

 

Yeah, but the ruleset was more flexible in those days.

 

I can`t think of another great heavyweight besides Jack Dempsey that left us with so many unanswered questions as Mike Tyson did. It`s frustrating to try and get a clear read on how good he was. Some feel he was this unbeatable machine who just happened to go down the tubes when the better competition started to fill up the division. Or those character issues were always there and he would have had the same problems even in 1988 or whatever.
Mike Tyson was a great heavyweight. He certainly accomplished alot. He unified the title and defended 9 times. He electrified the sports world there is no question about that. With that said some still cling to the belief he was the greatest or that nobody could handle him during this very brief period in the 80s.

It`s kinda like the chicken or the egg argument with Tyson. It is frustrating when going back over his career. I don`t know how "prime Mike Tyson" would do when Evander Holyfield takes him into deep water where it has nothing to do with boxing. How would he handle Lennox Lewis jab and right hand. Is he gonna keep moving his headn and work to get inside or start tightening up an throwing one punch at a time?

He left us with these questions