Does it annoy anyone else that it's become mainstrem parlance now to call Floyd "The Best Ever"?

The 1st half is facts
“To be totally accurate Ali claimed he was the Greatest Heavyweight, he said he viewed Sugar Ray Robinson as the GOAT of overall boxing. ”

The 2nd half is opinion shared by most boxing fans old enough to know better.
SRR > FMJ

 

I should have been more specific. No problem with Ali saying that he was the greatest because at the time he was saying it. he was. The reason he was is because no fighter before him had bought the skillset he did to the heavyweight division. He moved like no heavyweight before him and was very successful with it. He even had a move named after him. That's ATG stuff right there. Plus the fact that he is still talked about and referenced today on a regular basis. He is a measuring stick on greatness. If it wasn't for Ali, Mayweather wouldn't have been able to make the money and control his own destiny the way he did. My contention is that the statement made about Mayweather is not a fact at all but merely an opinion, and it's an opinion that I totally disagree with. Anybody that truly knows boxing would recognize the massive level of skills that Mayweather possessed. For pure skills, he was second to none in his era. Mayweather fought and called out any fighter that was in his path to the top. He didn't fight every fighter people wanted him to fight because he had a plan and most of the fights(like Margarito) called for him to go backwards instead of forward and he wasn't heading in that direction. When he fought his way to the top, he fought who he wanted to. Ali made that possible. Mayweather played the boxing business game better than any fighter, however, Ali opened the door. Any talk of Mayweather not being an ATG of the first order is only hate.

 

I am English, lets get this out of the way.

I watched a video yesterday (SPORTbible Australia via FB), looked like NYC, where a guy was asking random people on the street, male and female, young and old, who the GOAT Athlete was.

Not one person named Floyd. Ali got a couple of mentions but the majority went with (1) M Jordan (2) Babe Ruth.

Myself? Daley Thompson (Decathlete).

 

Agreed
Mayweather is an ATG
Just not TBE in any weight class he fought in because a guy named
Sugar Ray Robinson
Existed.

 

He's arguably top 10 or 15 imo and certainly among the highest skilled to ever do it, but he's certainly not the goat

Just remember, the greatest and best are not exactly the same

 

Doesn't really annoy me. I know damn well he's not the best ever.

 

Almost all of people who do so say it ironically.

 

Ali had a global reach beyond anything that Joe Louis was feasible of reaching in his time. I think a few of Ali's fights had near a billion viewers. So if you did a poll of people all over the globe they'd almost certainly pick Ali as greatest heavyweight of all time, if not GOAT boxer.

He also tends to find himself in greatest overall athlete polls in large part for his non-boxing specific things, standing up to Vietnam some of the social stuff he did in retirement.

Mayweather is almost the anti-Ali in that regard, when he himself embraced he was a "Money" man first and foremost.

 

Anyone claiming Floyd is TBE is a class A dumb *******. The guy cherrypicked/took fights at opportune moments - rarely ever had true prime-prime fair even fights. He's the biggest fraud in boxing after Clenelo.

 

If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.

- Goebbels

 

There about 5 or more posts in this thread aside from mine, specifically addressing why Ali calling himself the Greatest is not like what Floyd does with TBE. They are not the same. Ali has a waaay better claim than Floyd does which is why it annoys people, and I'll leave it at that.

 

Floyd is what I call a " manufactured champion" He was selected as the Vegas cash cow & protected from harm like Fort Knox. He cherry picked his way through the boxers he knew couldn't beat him as long as he was standing at the final bell, he blatantly ducked the dangerous ones he was scared of ,so much so that someone professed they heard him quacking LOL TBE ?? ROFLMAO not on your life unless you believe the shtick he puts out daily on the internet . He'll tell you how great he is LOL

 

Yeah Ali boasted & bragged but the difference between Ali & Floyd was Ali backed up his bragging & beat his opponents, even calling the round he'd do it in too .Floyd only had to be standing at the final bell & he knew he'd never lose. He was safer than Fort Knox

 

Plus the protection he had throughout

 

Have never thought of Mayweather as the best ever even though he did a wonderful job spreading propaganda to the gullible that he was.