Has any Heavyweight fought a tougher slate of opponents than Ali?

Who in history has faced more good/great fighters in history than Ali? It's crazy to think that not only does Ali have the best wins in history, he faced the toughest strength of schedule of opponents ever. For 2 decades straight Ali cleaned up the HW division. He fought every single man who ranked in the top 10 of the Ring Magazine HW ratings from 1962-1978. He literally did not miss an opponent.

Liston x2
Frazier x3
Norton x3
Holmes
Foreman
Archie Moore
Bonavena
Young
Shavers
Patterson x2
Lyle
Terrell
Jones
Cooper

Only Evander Holyfield can compare if he faced off vs prime Mike Tyson.

 

Oh boy you forgot a lot lol
Quarry x2
Cleveland Williams
Zora Folley
Chuvalo
Just to name a few. No one came close to be honest except maybe Louis. Holyfield being third but Holy didn’t win nearly as much as Louis and Ali did.

 

The answer is no.

One of many reasons he was The Greatest … he fought the best.

 

WTF???????

 

He shamelessly ducked Johnny Persol.

"The Greatest" my eye.

 

Lmao

 

David Jaco

Carl Williams
Razor Ruddock
Pierre Coetzer
Tony Tucker
Mike Tyson
James Douglas
Jose Ribalta
Mike Weaver
Oliver McCall
Gary Mason
George Foreman
Alex Stewart
Tommy Morrison
Bert Cooper

If I´m correct, he beat one of those 14, because the fellow couldn´t breath anymore. Poor boy.

 

But back then HW boxers fought a lot more often and there weren’t 15 different trinkets and 4 different potential world champions. Back then the sport was far more fan friendly as the best fought the best multiple times over in many cases.

You wouldn’t ever see a situation like the Hrgovic situation play out which is shame on every boxing promoter and manager in the sport. As one of the hottest prospects can’t get a fight because everyone is ducking him for 18 months and counting.

You could have resumes as stacked as Ali from 1990’s and 2000’s HWs had the prevailing culture and conditions been the same then as it was back in the 1960s and 1970s.

 

Almost certainly yes, just not as successfully.

 

You mean you've never seen his clinic against jack bodell or Joe Roman?

 

No, I'm afraid I missed those - as I apparently did a lot of other fights!

 

Well Ali's opponents were just outstanding.

Just to call two other HWs with strong opponents (not all of them were proper heavyweights):

1. Jersey Joe Walcott
2x Joe Louis
2x Rocky Marciano
4x Ezzard Charles
3x Elmer Ray
3x Joey Maxim
2x Curtis Sheppard
2x Tiger Jack Fox
+ against Jimmy Bivins, Harold Johnson, Rex Layne, Lee Q Murray, Joe Baksi, Abe Simon, Lee Oma, Olle Tandberg...

(And of course, Ezzard Charles had plenty strong opponents as a heavyweight too.)

2. Fireman Jim Flynn
2x Jack Dempsey
2x Jack Johnson
6x Sam Langford
and many more like Tommy Burns, Fred Fulton, Billy Miske, Al Kaufman, Gunboat Smith, Carl Morris, Luther McCarty, Jim Coffey... Some of them he fought several times. He also fought against more or less lighter but very skilled boxers like: Jack Dillon, Battling Levinsky, Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, Billy Papke...

 

Andrew Chiariglione fought.
Langford x7
Flowers
Morris x4
Dempsey x2
Miske x2
Dillon x6
Johnson x2
O Brien
Battling Johnson x3
Root
Burns
Kaufman x3
Squires
Papke x2
Sullivan x4
Gardner x2
Smith x2
McCarty x2
Levinsky x2
Fulton
Barry

 

This.

 

This is actually debatable.

Even some of the most legendary fighters back then didn't have quite the resume of Ali. Not because they were ducking mind you, it's just that Ali turned over every single stone and went out of his way to fight nearly every opponent who had a pulse and a name.

It would not be "easy" to have a similar resume even with one belt and less politics. You still have to beat the guys too!