Seeing the ongoing negative threads on Marciano has made me think of doing something similar to Ali. Let's blast away at him for a change. Here's my 10. 1. Jack Johnson 2. Jack Dempsey 3. Gene Tunney 4. Joe Louis 5. Ezzard Charles. 6. Jersey Joe Walcott 7. Sonny Liston(prime) 8. Henry Cooper 9. Larry Holmes 10. Vlad There are more but I can't be arsed to list them. I will explain why these fighters could beat Ali if asked. I await the damnation of all the Ali adorers.
Lennox, Wlad, Vitali, Frazier, Louis, Prime Liston, Evander, maybe tyson. These are the only people I'd potentially give the nod to, and IMO the only ones that can be reasonably justified, and even still many is a stretch.
1. Lennox Lewis 2. Wolodomyr Klitschko 3. Tony Tucker 4. James Douglas 5. Vitali Klitschko 6. Larry Holmes 7. Carl Williams 8. Nicolay Valuev 9. George Foreman 10. Joe Frazier 11. Abdul Aziz 12. George Chuvalo 13. Doug Jones 14. Henry Cooper 15. Ken Norton
They were 10 that came to mind that I think COULD have beaten Ali on a given night. I try not to say WOULD in mythical match ups. I was just getting a bitted pissed off with the anti-Marciano threads, really. I'm not even a massive fan of Rocky, but the flak he gets is ridiculous! There are holes in his record but you can rip into any heavyweight if you try hard enough. I watched Ali-Norton 2 a few days ago and I thought at times Ali was getting hammered. I think there is a myth around Ali that he was untouchable. There is also a double standard regarding size that Ali benefits from, as follows. Marciano's and Louis's opponents are routinely slated for not being modern size heavyweights(or in Louis's case he beat big oafs!), but Ali didn't fight anyone as big and good as Lennox Lewis or Vlad but only a few on here would favour them over Ali. If Norton can physically dominate Ali why can't Lewis? If Bugner can trouble Ali why can't Vlad? Ali seems to get a bye again. Another poster whose name escapes me said that no fight between greats would be a mismatch and I agree. They all have something special that seperates them from the rest. Ali was great, but so were Louis, Holmes, Frazier etc in their day. Like jowcol, I find it practically impossible to compare eras due to the difference in training from one to another. I just picked a few guys who had a style to trouble Ali(Cooper cannot be argued!) for a bit of fun. You could do the same to Louis or anyone else.
On that list only Larry Holmes has a chance.the only that I think beats ali is lennox lewis. Some of the names on that list have zero chance.
Not the ones I believe can beat Prime Ali, but the ones i think might have troubled him the most. 1- Prime Sonny Liston 2- 1993 Tommy Morrison 3- Vitali Klitschko 4- Wladimir Klitschko 5- Prime Joe Louis 6- George Foreman 7- Larry Holmes 8- Deontay Wilder 9- 1992/93 Riddick Bowe 10- Jack Johnson
I never realised that there was a third Klitschko brother You missed Jean-Pierre Coopman off your list