Go to 2.42 of this excellent video to see a seemingly better example of a punch lifting an even heavier fighters off of his feet - This content is protected
Tyson is an interesting case, because on one hand you have the nonsense that he lost all his big fights (Spinks was a damned big fight for those of us around at the time) and to every one who stood up to him, but on the other hand his losses in the middle iof his career is just disregarded by some because he wasn't dedicated, didn't have Rooney etc. And many of these same people get incensed when it gets mentioned that several of his opponents (and could have been opponents) had as much, if not more, problems of that nature.
I read a chapter about him in someones book,Selling guns to the IRA might have something to do with it?
We're conflating health with career here. Floyd definitely envies Ali for how connected he was to his fans and the people, though he obviously doesn't envy how Ali spent his later years in terms of his health; they're two different things. Nearly a quarter of the world's population watched or listened to The Rumble In The Jungle, which eclipses any Floyd fight on such a monumental scale that they're hardly comparable. He was voted The Sports Personality Of The Century by the BBC and Sportsperson of the Century by SI. It's insane that any boxer could scoop up one of those awards, given how much of a fringe sport it is, never mind both. These are the types of awards that Floyd's ego truly wants to win, but he pretends that it's all about the money. That's why he spends so much of his post-retirement trying to remain relevant, stay in the spotlight, fight clowns like Logan Paul, and downplay the achievements of Inoue and Crawford. When Ali was in Zaire, hundreds of people followed him, running around, wanting to experience his presence. He came to the stadium in a country he'd never been to, and 60,000 people sang his name. Floyd fought a reality TV star in London, and less than 25% of the tickets were sold in a 20,000-seat arena. He got chased out of a shopping centre in London in 2024, whereas Ali was mobbed by the people wherever he went; he didn't even have security. These are much more important measures of greatness for a narcissist like Floyd, and it'll be eating him alive that people don't bow at his feet wherever he goes. Throwing dollar bills at strippers on Instagram isn't the only way to be rich in life. Deep down, Floyd knows this. When Tyson cries while talking about Ali, Floyd wishes people would do that for him, but they don't. The majority of fans remember him as a gifted fighter who often engineered his way around fighting the best in their prime, never left the US, and refused to engage in any challenge where he couldn't call all the shots. So, yes, Floyd 100% envies Ali's legacy, although he will never admit it. Ali was a Gladiator and Floyd was a businessman.
The plethora of world titles make it easier to become a world titlist. Then you hear they are a 3 time world champion because either they have won in different divisions or in same division either by unifying alphabet soup titles or winning another version after dropping a previous version for whatever reason (stripped, lost, vacated). Look at Carl Froch as an example, no doubt a tough world level fighter who picked up alphabet baubles aplenty but failed in what was considered as a vacant World Championship fight, probably the only Championship fight he had and never rematched. He did well over his career but was never the World Champ. I go by world titlist unless it's obvious that a fighter is the Champ. On a similar vein is Usyk is a two time Undisputed (Unified) heavyweight Champion after beating Dubois for the second time. Yes he vacated the IBF belt and Dubois beat Joshua for this but really he was the World Champion and Daniel was a titlist who bebefitted from boxing politics. I have heard people complain about draws in fights and it should be determined with another round to decide a winner. What if the round is draw? And speaking of round scoring, another is that a round should be won and a drawn round avoided when scoring which to myself is ludicrous. If you cannot seperate them then it's perfectly acceptable to score as a drawn round. As a been mentioned I think earlier in the thread, the discussion about modern fighter being superior to old time fighters. Yes training techniques have changed but older fighters also fought more often and could craft their skills over a period of time. The propensity of rating modern fighters as the greatest ever with limited amount of fights. If they had to fight more often and not really worry too much about losing the precious 0 on their record and promoters being more open to setting up meaningful fights then I would have more praise to give. Not saying that there has not been good fighters who could have fought in any era and done well or dominated but listing some fighters who get a ATG tag such as: Usyk, Loma, Crawford, Canelo, Mayweather etc probably would have had good records in days gone by, but, taking Mayweather's self promotion and fan boys saying he was the greatest ever because he's 49-0 (don't start with the mickey mouse McGregor fight) should be taken with some skepticism. Look at fighters such Harry Greb, Sugar Ray Robinson and Willie Pep who went on extended unbeaten streaks that dwarf his whole record, not saying everyone on their records was a good fighter but they challenged themselves more regularly and did the proper distance for World Champion fights (my opinion) of fifteen rounds. Lastly, and following on from a previous post You have to take the title from the Champion, which, if it's also in his, the champ's own backyard is a double whammy.
I’m definitely conflating health with career. Floyd was vocal about keeping his health, not about wanting to carry an Olympic torch.
But health and career are not the same thing. One can have Ali’s career without having Parkinson’s. There’s a genetic component. We’ve seen guys who took lots of punches and got KO’d multiple times age with no major mental or physical issues and ones who had relatively punishment-free careers suffer from it. Any boxer would gladly trade for Ali’s career. No human being would volunteer to have Parkinson’s, including people who didn’t box who had the disease. A Hallmark movie actress would gladly trade for Natalie Wood’s career … that doesn’t mean she wants to drown to death at 43, lol.
You can rationalize all you want, but I’ve never seen one person claim they’d want Gerald McClellan’s career. Mayweather would actually be taking a huge pay cut to trade places with Ali, man who lost to Leon Spinks.
Gerald McClellan’s career was not that great lol. Why on earth would someone pick him out of all possible boxers and say ‘I’d like to trade careers with him’ given that no one can actually trade careers with anyone else so it’s just an expression — even a journeyman given the mental exercise of saying who they’d want to trade careers with would pick someone else. If you want to talk career earnings, that’s a different kettle of fish. Floyd certainly made out financially. But I’d bet in his heart of hearts he’d rather circumstances were that he was known as the greatest heavyweight of all time than be the ‘self-proclaimed TBE.’ Plus, Ali won a gold medal in the Olympics and Floyd was a bronze medalist and you know that eats him alive — third place. Yeah an old Ali lost to Leon Spinks … and then got to be a three-time heavyweight champ by avenging it. Joe Louis lost to Ezzard Charles and Marciano. Ray Robinson lost to people most have never heard of by fighting on too long. Roy Jones Jr too. Doesn’t make them less great. If it does, Mike Tyson must be the worst heavyweight champ of all time because he lost to Jake ****ing Paul, haha. Speaking of which, almost any sane boxer would choose to trade careers with Jake Paul. Fight like once a year and count millions and millions. But in his heart of hearts, I guarantee Jake wishes he were a real fighter and had real accomplishments like an Ali rather than being a social media wannabe and meme.