Did Lewis have a better resume than Ali? (Breakdown)

No.

Ali won more world title fights.

Ali beat more ranked contenders.

Ali beat more fighters ranked as the best in the world, aside from himself, at the time of the fight.

Ali beat 3 x top 15 HW ATGs compared to Lewis's 2 (1 of whom was shot). He beat 4 x top 30 HW ATGs compared to Lewis's 3. Mcgrain has done a top 100, I'm not sure on exact numbers, but it included considerably more Ali victims, than Lewis victims.

Lewis's loses are more damaging to his resume than Ali's.

 

The comparison was number of top 15 HW ATGs beaten. I agree the KO in Liston 2 looked suspect, but Ali beat him in their 1st fight, judging by which, Liston's dive, if that's what it was, in their rematch had no impact on the eventual victor.

Spinks wasn't 1 of the top 15 ATG HWs I referenced, so is irrelevant to that point.

Anyone can claim mitigating circumstances to any win in boxing history if they are that way minded. I provided a list of relevant, objective comparisons to explain to you why the vast majority of posters and boxing historians consider Ali's resume as better than Lewis’s.

 

Obviously most people are going to say Ali, and it is widely regarded as sacrilege to question anything about his legacy, or compare any other fighters favorably to him...

Ali does indeed have some questionable wins, or at the very least underwhelming and uninspiring performances that get glossed over, and people tend to excuse away the bulk of his losses while rarely giving that same benefit of doubt to anyone else in history.

But Ali still has many great wins, and I don't know if Lewis's two reigns will surpass him...

However you did leave off a few big wins from Lewis's resume, some of which he does not get enough credit for today....
Obviously David Tua belongs on that list as does Andrew Golota, and to a lesser extent, Michael Grant.

People may smirk at those names today, but at the time Lewis faced, they were considered the most dangerous men available, and were being highly propped up by the very same boxing elitists who today would fail to give any credit for those wins.
Lewis does not get enough credit for this: seeking out and finding the most dangerous and ruthless opponents of his day, and fighting them when their stock is at its most highest. In the cases of the 3 I mentioned, he made quick and brutal work of Golota and Grant, and absolutely dominated and tamed the feared Tua.

I don't know that Ali could boast the same reputation as consistently seeking out and destroying the boxing establishments new flavor of the month with such dangerous men.
Obviously Liston and Foreman come to mind, but the roles were reversed in those instances, and neither were destroyed in the fashion that Lewis did to those boys I mentioned.

Ali does also enjoy a lot of accolades for beating up on smaller, limited, and washed up opponents outside of their natural weight classes, and even doing it multiple times.
Lewis on the other hand did a pretty good job of seeking out guys who big men in their own rights, and of the smaller stature guys he did face, like Tyson and Tua, they at least had the reputations as being killers.

All in all, great thread. I have never seen Ali as the sacred cow above reproach as most others here do

 

A strong NO

 

Ali has got Lewis beat on depth by some margin.

For example he fought twice as many men ranked in the top ten by Ring Magazine.

That means that any argument for Lewis's resume would have to be a quality based argument, and I don't see that being enough.

 

Can't see a case being made for Lewis here, Ali's resume is S tier.

 

Ali started beating ranked contenders in 1962 and was still doing so up to 1978.
When you look at the Ring Magazine year end rankings for every one of those years in between those dates it’s unbelievable how many Ali beat in any one year. In one year I can’t remember which one he’d beaten every contender listed.

 

Absolutely no. Ali beat better fighters than Lewis did

 

Ali had better resume

 

You can argue Lewis as better than Ali depending on just how strong you rate their respective opponents.

So let me sketch it out.

I think that you could make a good case that H2H Lewis' opponents beat Ali's opponents.

Forgive me, but in Lewis' day guys like Spinks, Cooper and Patterson, and probably even Old Man Liston aren't going too far against Holyfield, Rahman, Tyson, Ruddock, and Klitschko. Frazier was a great P4P fighter but he never had to go nose to nose with guys like Tua or McCall who could suck up everything he could dish out and return it with interest. Oh, wait he did - and it didnt go well. I don't fancy Norton's chin against the gauntlet of big hitters that was roving around during Lewis' reign. "Big" George Foreman would be run of the mill sized and even small compared to some of Lewis' opponents.

There's a further case to be made that maybe Ali got a tad lucky in his decisions, particularly against Norton.

Now of course this is all a subjective evaluation since we can't really compare their opponents H2H with perhaps the exception of Foreman/ Morrison ... which is really an old fighter vs a fresh one and means little. However I think Lewis has a reasonable claim to being better than Ali on this basis. I still personally have Ali as higher than Lewis based on 'greatness' whatever tf that really is, but in a H2H fight I'd pick Lewis, no doubt.

 

It’s not even close to be honest. Ali’s resume is much better. Even if u just take the top five names Lewis fought them all when they were over 35. Not his fault for all of them but still. Lewis also missed Bowe.
Ali’s whole resume is maybe three times as long with quality. Lewis did get screwed w men avoiding him and fought in an era that allowed that behavior.

 

Ring Rankings 1963

Sonny Liston, Champion

1. Cassius Clay
2. Doug Jones
3. Ernie Terrell
4. Cleveland Williams
5. Zora Folley
6. Eddie Machen
7. Floyd Patterson
8. Karl Mildenberger
9. George Chuvalo
10. Brian London

Ring Rankings 1973

George Foreman, Champion

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Joe Frazier
3. Ken Norton
4. Jerry Quarry
5. Ron Lyle
6. Earnie Shavers
7. Oscar Bonavena
8. Joe Bugner
9. Jimmy Ellis
10. Chuck Wepner

Ali beat everyone on that list 10 years apart except he never fought Eddie Machen