If Ali carried dynamite in his hands would he be regarded as the best HW P4P, it seems he did everything else well and a KO punch he had but not on the level of Dempsey or Louis, if he did though, would you regard him as no1 HW?
He is the no.1 HW, no question. The next best is Joe Louis but only nostalgia can have you believe he is Ali's superior in ability or resume. The only only other guys you ever see rated above him are Dempsey and Jeffries by old white guys but they are few and far between. In my opinion.
I would argue that his championship distance endurance and toughness might be less than it was if he'd been a puncher in the league of Louis and Dempsey. That stamina is a huge part of his legacy. Because punching wore him down in his younger days, he actually used his legs to conserve energy. With a much bigger punch, his legs and mobility wouldn't have been what they were. As it is, he wasn't feather fist material. His punch was perfectly adequate for his needs. Given a choice between speed and power, speed usually prevails, endurance, toughness, skill and stature being equal.
If Muhammad had one punch ko power alongside all his other gifts,we'd have had to stop insulting him with words like great and miraculous !
Ali had beautiful timing and when a punch is timed correctly it can land with the same power as a natural heavy puncher. Ali's best display of timing and footwork is against Cleveland Williams IMO. and a good example of good timing being more effective over a power puncher is the Rumble in the Jungle.
He would be p4p greatest athlete of all time. And there would be no arguments about it. But I think in the physics of our world, he would have to sacrifice some of his speed and footwork to have more power. SRR had incredible power, and his footwork and ring generalship was out of this world. But no boxer in the history of the sport moved like Ali moved in the Williams fights, or any other fights around that time. Im sure those qualities cannot coexist with much more power. Having said that, Ali had bad hands his entire career. He pretty much slapped Lyle into submission. I think that was one of the his worst fights when it came to the condition of his hands