36yr old Ali lost to a 7 fight novice (Spinks), 39yr old Usyk beat kickboxing legend with 77 fights

Rico isn't even considered the kickboxing goat let alone the heavyweight kickboxing goat in most discussions. Based on research the majority of fans feel the heavyweight K-1 era in the 1990s and early 2000s was much more stacked and that Rico is benefiting from a weak era similar to Wladimir.

Furthermore Ricos last pro boxing match was in 2014 and Ali wasn't dodging mandatories.

You Usyk ****swingers aren't considering the fact that your heavyweight goat just struggled with an unknown kickboxer that had 0 boxing accolades. This makes the entire sport look BAD, Leon Spinks as a gold medalist and his main profession was BOXING, so it doesn't make the sport look anywhere near as pathetic

 

who considers him the kickboxing goat? the same ones that say usyk is the goat?

 

the copium from usyk fans is crazy

 

Usyk got beatup by a COMPLETE novice and was saved by corrupt ref

 

I might look into K1 a bit more.

 

I know how they work, I saw Mayweather toy with McGregor before upping the ante and taking him out and Floyd didn't need a controversial post bell stoppage. Anthony Joshua obliterated Ngannou easily because the skill level and experience level was massive. Thats how it's supposed to go. The experience and pure boxing fundamentals or the boxing iq should be on a completely different level to striking in any other martial arts sport because striking is what boxers specialize in, all effort goes into boxing instead of very dynamic fighting styles. Elite boxers should destroy any other combat sport if both are fighting under boxing rules, just like elite kickboxers should annihilate any boxers under kickboxing rules, the margins of era at the highest level are too small for this to not be the case.

Usyk has totally emberrassed boxing just like Fury. The greatest heavyweight of this generation wasnt capable of comfortably beating a kickboxer who only had 1 pro boxing match back in 2014 !!

 

Ali was in the early stages of parkinsons at the time,big difference.Its a measure of the greatness of the man that he won the rematch despite this

 

The rose-tint on all forums is too strong. Every Heavyweight great faced adversity and from lesser opposition.

Louis vs Conn 1
Marciano vs La Starza
Marciano vs Ancient Archie
Holmes vs Snipes (Holmes basically got KO'd without help from the ref)
Tyson vs Douglas
Holyfield vs Moorer
Lewis vs Rahman
Wlad vs Purrity
Ali vs Spinks
Ali vs Wepner
Foreman vs Young
Holyfield vs Bean
Sullivan vs Corbett


This is just off the top of my head, and only at heavyweight. Rose-tinted posters forget the struggles and seem to only remember the good things, whilst ignoring the good things and focusing on the struggles of modern greats.

 

lol Ali had Parkinson’s which practically made him semi disabled at that point

 

Ali cemented his legacy long before the Leon fight. And don't be fooled\ignore the career break of 3 years, because Usyk was not in that situation.

 

Longevity of fighters back then was entirely different, and Ali had comic book career at that point, starting in 60's and moving on to the 70's.

The man faced Liston, Foreman, Lyle, Shavers, and Foster and that's just starting with the murderous punchers. Trilogies with Frazier and Norton, plethora of ex-champions and longtime top contenders like Patterson, Ellis, Quarry, Bugner, Bonavena more than once. It all takes it its toll and when for once modern nutrition argument can benefit an older fighter's case, it's not there.

Ali faced all styles, all types of fighters, all while managing his own declining and changing body.

Usyk is an all-time great but people need to start putting some damn respect on Ali's name again, and better do it with some damn veneration. His career was ridiculous. Noteworthy names like Chuvalo, Terrell, Mathis, or Evangelista get absolutely lost in the list of elite fighters of the two eras Ali defined.

 

Some of these examples are silly.

Conn was an ATG Light Heavyweight.

Moore is considered a top 10 P4P fighter of all time and he'd beaten numerous top 10 ranked Heavyweights prior to the Marciano fight despite being older.

Moorer was a 35-0 top 3 ranked Heavyweight who was also a former Light Heavyweight champion.

These are not good examples they are all very good opponents.

Also Holmes was not basically KO'ed and got help from the referee ?

Holmes got up within 3 seconds and took over the 2nd half of the round.

Ali won 11 out of the 14 rounds vs Wepner and stopped him again not a good example.

Young would be considered a top 10 Heavyweight of the decade in the 1970s.

Drew with Shavers.

Lost a highly disputed decision to Ali.

Beat Foreman.

Beat Lyle.

Lost another highly disputed decision to Norton.

Young is not as highly regarded as Foreman but for a good 3 year period he was genuine top 5 Heavyweight he was hardly a scrub was he ?

 

Ali did not struggle vs Wepner. He won handily. Jesus.

Young is one of the best heavyweight contenders of all time. A legit top 10 guy.