Who is the most overrated heavyweight, Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Tyson Fury, or others?

George Foreman

 

Certainly not because of his resume.

 

Even ignoring the strong bias I hold for Ali, I don’t understand how anyone can class him as the most overrated heavyweight at heavyweight. Like honestly, what more do you want from him that he didn’t already do? It’s like saying Joe Louis’ title reign was decent but could have been better if he added another dozen defenses. And while I do agree in him being overrated on an overall level by most people, I still would disagree with him being the most overrated heavyweight overall, that would likely go to MT.

Ali has just about the best resume you can ask for. 34/50 of his unique opponents were at some point in their career, ranked #10 or lower, that’s the most (by my count) EXCEPT for Joe Louis. That 68%, is higher than just about any heavyweight ever (by my count) EXCEPT for Jack Sharkey. 12 of them were wc’s in an era of just 2 belts with 7 of them being undisputed. Lastly, 8 of them were HoF’s with 4 of them (Liston, Frazier, Foreman, and Holmes) being regarded as near or in the top ten heavyweights all time by most people. Holmes and Berbick are also the only two of all those that he didn’t beat because of his condition.

Ali’s accomplishments are, well, nearly the best you can ask for as well. Third most title defenses of any hw champ ever (19), third longest combined reign of any hw champ ever (over 9 years, just slightly shorter than Wlad’s reign), only three time lineal hw champ, most times named ring fighter of the year (6), partook in the most ring fights of the year (went 4-2, 3 KO). The icing on the cake is the age at which he won his titles at, being the second youngest and second oldest when he won his first and third titles, two great accomplishments rarely brought up. That being said, accomplishments can be seen differently by the person and some of the things I value may not be valued by others.

One last thing that I also rarely see people talk about is how long Ali fought at the championship level and won, which was 36 against Leon Spinks. There were 23 heavyweight champions to come before Ali. Only 2, Walcott and Liston (both of whom began their boxing careers after Ali did), fought and won a heavyweight title bout at an older age than Ali did (Liston assuming he was born at the latest in late 1926). All of this was done in the golden age of the heavyweight division when Ali suffered from his exile and a progressively worsening disease. And while yes, there were controversial decisions like Young or Norton, what does that prove against Ali? It’s not like he’s the only one who has received “gift” decisions. If you are going to bash him for that, then why aren’t you bashing Louis? Why aren’t you bashing Leonard? Why aren’t you bashing Spinks? Either bash everyone equally or don’t at all. Did go off a bit on a rant at the end there because I hate when people try to use the gift argument against any boxer and try to use it to detract from one’s greatness.

 

All of you who say Fury and then say "hIs ReSuMe 1s ThIn"
Who HASN'T he fought?????
Wlad undefeated for 10 years = easy decision
Wilder 1-3 = Fury won all 3 easily and I'm not even gonna bring up furys personal problems before the first fight
He has beat multiple title contenders
He has had literally all the belts at one time
He only has 1 more fighter to fight and that's Usyk and he's basically cleared out his generation

 

He literally didn’t fight the best fighters of his generation. Besides a past it Wlad. He managed to miss Povetkin whom was probably better than Fury. Missed AJ (now he wants to fight the broken AJ) and will probably never meet Usyk. No Andy Ruiz either. Went for the biggest bum of the top in Wilder.
I think he has great talent but we will never know how good he could have been because he really never fought anyone worth mentioning besides Wlad.

 

Since my time at the house formerly known as ESB, I'd say George Foreman is the most overrated. In his comeback, dude struggled with fighters who got annihilated against better competition. Then you have Foreman followers claiming the better competition ducked Foreman simply because that better competition never fought Foreman...

Every fan base has their die hards. But when talking sense and rationalizing through logic is a ****in chore, that fan base becomes borderline delusional...

 

Interesting that fella brings up Jones when Ali was before what any fair person would say was his best and Young when any fair person would say he was past it.

 

Holyfield was lucky Tyson went to prison. Nah, I'm just playin with ya!





















Or am I...

 

You rule, Sangria.

 

It's a bit silly to say Ali is the most overrated when even his biggest hater could probably put him no lower than 3rd best heavyweight all time.

 

Jack Dempsey

I've seen people say they reckon he would have taken Ali, Louis, Tyson, Klitschko brothers, Fury, Holmes etc I don't see it personally.

 

I don't know much about tennis but they were discussing Roger Federer's retirement on the BBC and who is the GOAT tennis player. One of the hosts mentioned cultural influence. That's why Dempsey gets so highly rated. For cultural influence, in no order it's Ali, Dempsey, Tyson, Louis, and Jack Johnson. Honorable mention-Rocky Marciano.

 

I hate to call any champion overrated. But Jack Dempsey has gotten a lot of praise over the last 100 years for a man who sat on the title for three years without a single defense and who never met the era’s best challenger. Still a great champion for many other reasons but he doesn’t get half the flack that some guys get for less

 

Because he transcended his sport. I'm trying to think of an analog in another sport, maybe Joe Namath whose legend Is larger than his resume.

 

No no my friend...YOU are the man!!