Best heavyweight record any fighter could have plausibly amassed with great luck?

But what could he add to his existing legacy, is the question?

I'm not sure giving him Frazier I and Norton I (making him 3-0 against both, which is of course stellar) makes his better than Norton's would be with Ali himself x3, Frazier, Holmes and Foreman. Even if Ali had amassed the greater accomplishments outside that set, in terms of secondary and tertiary victories, in fact somewhat because of that fact (since Ali himself is a bigger and more intensely value-adding scalp than Norton), his mightn't be clearly better. Winning the whole trilogy h2h is valuable for Ali, but exponentially more so for Norton.

 

Foeman v Ali takes place in Houston rather than Zaire.

Voila.

 

First off, no great fighter can be perfect against all styles, unless in a class or 2 above in poor stylistic match ups, so careful selection of opponents is a must, or fight in a very weak era. Secondly, the fighter in question needs to be extremely consistent in showing up in great shape and well prepared for all fights (Marciano and Frazier are examples of this). And thirdly, the fighter must be willing to retire in time and stay retired (Marciano and Tunney are examples of this).

IMHO, of course.

 

If Holmes hadn’t been inactive for most of 1984 and had taken spinks more seriously he probably could have gone somewhere around 51-0.

 

Ali’s record is the best and don’t see anyone even within a stratosphere of it.

 

Frazier got lax after FOTC, training less intensely & heavier.
There is no way he should have been the identical weigt as the dramatically taller & muscular Foreman.

 

LaMar Clark should have retired at 42-0, 41 KOs.

 

I have often reflected that things could have been very different for Genady Golovkin.

For years the lineal title was held hostage, by men that he could have walked through.

He should probably have been a lineal champion, with multiple defenses, before Canelo was even in the argument.

When a lineal champion was finally willing to give him a crack at it, he was perhaps a bit past his best, he was fighting the best pound for pound fighter of our generation, and he should really have got the decision.

Arguably robbed in the rematch as well.

Now I am guessing that if Golovkin had got the nod either time, then Canelo would have licked his wounds, and gone on to be a pound for pound #1 anyway.

 

Are we...are we talking about Golovkin vs. Canelo at heavyweight? What a thought exercise!

 

It’s a matter of economics. He signed with HBO, which was on a shoestring budget by that time so they were lining up GGG and Kovalev with bargain-basement defenses. They weren’t going to lay out enough money to make a unification fight happen.

Guys holding lineal or other belts aren’t obligated to fight GGG or anyone else for whatever pittance is offered.

 

George Foreman, if he'd of fought Ali in USA and gone without everything that went on in Zaire, the cut delaying the fight and extending the psychological battering he was taking, the hostility he encountered from the locals.