Muhammad Ali: Why is he rated #1 when he clearly isn't the greatest?

Dude if your oing to make you first post also your first thread then at least spell the fighters name right :rofl

It's Muhammad Ali :good

And i don't know of anyone ever rating MUHAMMAD ALI as P4P no.1 all time ever maybe best ever heavyweight is argueable but not p4p :blood

 

1) Man no one who knows anything about would have him no1 p4p..but there is no doubt he is up there..I reckon about 9-12...but no list I respect has him there.

2) Who you reckon is the greatest ever heavyweight?

 

op

 

His name is Muhammad Ali.
I haven't seen many people rate him as no 1 p4p ever but he is top 6-7.
And IMO he is the greatest HW ever.

 

No ref would stop the rope-a-dope used in Zaire, then or now, as Ali was countering Foreman effectively and landing clean shots to Foreman's grill throughout the fight.

 

eerr.... maybe we should refer it to Angelo Dundee?

but then, Ali is one of the greatest maybe the greatest Heavies of All time because his mouth is big but He backs it up in the ring.

 

While many see Ali as the as the best HW ever, not many serious boxing fans have Ali as nr. 1 p4p. Boxing promoter and expert Jim Jacobs - who had probably the most extensive collection of fight films in the world - was one of the few that did.

But here's a rundown of Ali's achievements, and then you can yourself make up your mind:

He had 38 fights against guys that were top 10 ranked when he fought them and he won 33 of them. He never lost to an unranked fighter.

He had 25 title fights and won 22 of them.

He beat three guys that most have in their top 10 (Liston, Frazier and Foreman) and one that many have in their top 20 (Patterson).

He's the only fighter I know of who came back after a pro-longed inactivity and managed to establish himself as THE top guy in a tough division. (Robinson also did very well in his comeback, but he lost about as many title fights as he won, while Ali won 12 of his 15 title fights in his second career)


Of course, you can always say that this or that guy that Ali beat was past it, and this or that decision should have gone the other way. But you can say this about most ATGs, but not many have the sheer number of good/great opponents that Ali had. He fought just about everyone there was to fight over two decades and beat everyone but two of them.

 

Ali took target practice at Foreman's grill, and now he's probably using it, like I do every day.

That revisionist history of how Ali was being dominated and beaten badly until Foreman tired is somewhat of a pet peeve of mine, although not like other myths that annoy me.

Ali was landing nice clean straight shots at Foreman's face throughout. It was almost comical at times how easy it seemed for Ali to land on Foreman's face.

Foreman fought a real stupid fight. He'd get hit right up the middle, do the same **** again without trying to defend, and then get tagged again.

 

Note that the OP seems to be having some all-time list fun. He started another thread in which he dropped Calzaghe in the top 15 (yes, all time), Pac top 10.

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=143857

I'll leave it up to you if you want to justify his posts with responses.

 

you're not the brightest crayon in the box are ya?

 

Ali is one of the greatest H W of all time but his holding ( usually from the bell)would never be allowed today and Tyson ,Lewis,Holmes & maybe Holyfield in their prime would all beat him.Foreman had the potential but not the brain in the jungle rumble,and he was less exciting to watch than Frazier,who IMHO beat him in their 2nd fight.
Whilst it's true he fought the best in the golden era of H W boxing a lot of the" greatest" stuff was down to the public believing it,and he nearly got found out against Norton and Leon Spinks,though I would put him as a true P4P great around the 12 mark...when talking about the likes of Sugar Ray,Armstrong,Duran,Leonard & Pep.