Holyfield argues he should be considered the GOAT over Ali

I don't see an issue. Holy on the level.

 

Naaaaaah dis brazy lmao

 

All that means is that Holyfield kept winning and losing too often to become a 4 time Heavyweight champion I don't see how that makes him the GOAT.

Holyfield has a good resume at Heavyweight and probably has the 2nd toughest list of opponents he had to fight 2nd to only Ali.

But the difference is Ali won pretty much all his big fights where as Holyfield lost to Bowe and Lewis who were the the 2 best Heavyweights of his era.

Holyfield was 26-11 at Heavyweight hardly a record that screams "GOAT Heavyweight".

 

to be fair, i don't think any of his losses post 1999 should count. The man clearly should have retired.

 

Bernard Hopkins is like that too.

 

Ali's heavyweight run is absurd.

 

Oscar was arrogant. That's disappointing. Who were the nicest? My mom, God bless her memory, was working at the federal building in Orlando in 1986. Muhammad Ali was there as a character witness for a friend. During a break he went to the cafeteria and signed autographs for everyone who wanted one. My mom said my son loves you and Muhammad said what's his name. He then signed an autograph to me

 

Yes but still he still didn't prove he was the best Heavyweight of his era clearly Bowe and Lewis are rated above him for me.

 

Holyfield is a Top 10 ATG HW without a doubt but he's definitely wrong thinking that he should be considered greater than Ali.

 

tbf, that occurred as he was training for a comeback vs. Larry Donald, by which time he'd already built his legacy & should've been retired for good. Ali got caught doping @ the same stage of his career vs. Holmes.

 

It doesn't matter when he got caught. It mars the entire career because it shows his willingness to cheat.

As for Ali, I have heart his accusation before, and have never heard is substantiated. All I know he was doing at that time was his thyroid meds.

 

He was taking Thyolar which was prescribed by a doctor which he readily admitted to taking. Is that similar to illegally taking anabolic steroids?

 

I'm sure this will be sacrilege to some, but I've never rated Holy super high in my HW ATGs. Top 15 at best, maybe.
Yes he had some great wins, a massive heart and was tough as old boots. And I get that he was often giving up height and weight etc. But he was just so inconsistent. Impressive victories were usually punctuated by flat performances and puzzling losses. I've always found him too up and down to fully get behind.

 

Arbitrarily taking away losses or pieces of a record because "that wasn't prime" is not how sports works. You signed the contract, you trained, got in the ring, and fought. That's a loss. Don't bring your feelings into it, hold boxers accountable to losses instead of trying to carve the perfect fighter out of them. And not only prime v prime fights count. Dream world.

 

we judge fighters by how great they were in their prime. Sure, we can't take losses away. Still, if a fighter continued well past their prime, it shouldn't diminish their greatness.