Which Heavyweights Were More Complete Than Muhammad Ali?

All of those men come close as they were for the most part pretty complete heavy’s. Were they MORE compete than Ali ? I can’t say for sure but I’m leaning towards no.

 

Proof again that excelling at a couple attributes and enforcing those advantages in the fight is more the norm at the highest level. It's as much about who is able to enforce their style of fighting as it is who has various advantages of skill and athleticism.

 

Richard Dunn

 

I never considered him particularly complete to be honest.

Just insanely good at what he did.

 

Quite an abundance of them including many he beat including Liston off the top of my head.

 

Liston is much more my idea of what a complete fighter looks like.

 

Agreed. Him and Louis.

 

Ali is widely considered by experts to be the best heavyweight of all time because of his physical gifts (speed and athleticism) and intangibles (chin, heart, ring IQ). His technical flaws (lack of body work, low right hand, tendency to pull from attacks, limited in-game, poorly thrown uppercut) decidedly prevent him from being the most complete. Liston, Holmes and Lewis are more complete, among many others.

 

All of them from your list and dozens more. Ali was a flawed fighter, fundamentally he did a lot of things wrong. He fought with his hands at his sides, he leaned back from punches, dropped his left after a jab, rarely went to the body, pushed down on shorter fighter's heads and necks, rested on ropes in his later years....he took a lot of punches. Ali was a fast HW for his size, and was either quicker on his feet than many of the slow lumbering HWs of his era or considerably larger. He had speed, great reflexes in his prime, solid footwork and a great chin.

 

Lots, Holmes is a less dynamic but overall a more complete, structured technical version of Ali, Holmes absorbed his craft during sparring. But peak roided Holyfield might be the most complete heavyweight ever. If he had the size on top of his speed and skill he'd have beaten everyone

 

Dare I say that the whole can be somewhat greater than the perceived sum of its parts?

Of course that concept calls in an holistic view being the ideal integration and combined utilisation of one’s parts.

So I guess that Ali could be said to have “completed” himself very successfully in those terms.

 

Not many

Maybe Holmes, Louis, Liston and Lewis. Maybe

People are vastly underrated Ali's versatility:

- Ali is easily one of the top 5 combination punchers in heavyweight history. Quite possibly top 3.

- Ali has the fastest feet in heavyweight history.

- Ali is among the best improvisers in heavyweight history.

- Ali is one of the most durable heavyweights ever in terms of taking head shots.

- Ali's ability to take body shots is unprecedented.

-Ali is one of the best back foot heavyweights ever.

- Ali could adjust and fight brilliantly off the front foot vs taller guys, see the first Bugner fight.

- Ali scored notable stoppages with different punches , i.e. right hand vs Lyle, Liston, left hook vs Bonvena.

Ali ranks among the best heavyweights ever in terms of speed, improvisational ability, intelligence, combination punching, toughness, durability and ability to adapt to different styles.

His weaknesses were dropping the right hand on defense and lack of body punching. Two significant weaknesses but most heavyweights would have 2 or more major weaknesses.

Given how many categories Ali excels in, its fair to say he is one of the more complete heavyweights of all time.