Why is Muhammad Ali HW ATG #1 and not Joe Louis?

Ali should have retired (retirement forever) after Leon Spinks rematch at 56–3 with no unavenged losses.
And so he became a three-time lineal champion, which no one has done before, and after.

 

But between Kinshasha and New Orleans he sustained A LOT of damage.

 

As the older generation dies off so the popularity of their heroes wanes.I personally think Dempsey gets Louis out of there early,but does that make Jack greater than Joe?

 

Joe Louis is 1# Ali is up there but there’s a lot of mythology and parlour tricks going on with why he’s ranked so high.

 

I think he fought the deepest collection of heavyweights over a two decade span there has ever been.
Patterson
Liston
Folley
Terrell
Jones
Cooper
Liston
Chuvalo
Mildenberger
M Foster
Lyle
Foreman
Frazier
Norton
Shavers
Quarry
Ellis
Bugner
Young
Lewis
Spinks

Nobody has come anywhere near close imo and that's why he's no1 for me.

 

There are four Olympic Gold Medalists and six or seven IBHOF Inductees on that list.

 

Lot of those guys perception of greatness has to do with there efforts against Ali which feeds into Ali being great. Do you understand?

 

I guess only time will tell.

I think Jeffries' resume holds up very well for so few fights.

 

YES! + he became the first 3 time HW Champion. From a medical perspective he should have ended his career after Zaire or definatelly after Frazier or Norton 3. But for his Record after Spinks 2 his way was finished.

 

A word about medical damages - Shavers.

 

Ali has the best resume of all the HW champions, but Louis had the best reign as champion.

And agree with Lennox Lewis being the only HW since then who can hold a claim to being #1 as years pass.

 

Ridiculous.

Seriously, just read through each and every post on this thread - and they’re all high quality, even handed, making perfect sense without necessarily being convergent - keeping the question of who should be # 1 as tight as it should be.

Sorry to bring the average quality level down but here goes:-

The quality of Ali’s comp. appears to give him the defining edge. Also, in times where Ali’s skill advantage was nullified/negated for whatever reasons, his durability, grit and determination to win otherwise gives him the greatest lead over the rest of the pack.

Even when he was no longer quite superman physically anymore, he was still very much superman in spirit.

One last thing, Ali himself made no mean contribution to the perception he was greater than Louis - damn, he never shut up about it. LOL.

Reading between Ali’s self promoting lines as they related to Joe, I actually think Ali’s bombast reflected that he, like many, knew just how good the Brown Bomber was.

To steal from @McGrain, I’m going to say for # 1 spot it’s a draw between Joe and Muhammad.

 

"It's like a mythical force guiding his (Ali) life, making him not like other men." -George Benton

 

You are definitely not alone in that opinion!
Joe had that long title reign, 25 defence s.
That's hard to beat.
Classic fans, like our self s recognise greatness.

 

Absolutely not.Liston and Foreman were perceived as unbeatable BEFORE Ali beat them.