Ali may not be the greatest but he has the greatest signature win

I challenge anyone to find me a better signature win than Ali vs Foreman. Here you had a guy who lost 3 years of his prime and was struggling to get back into things. He lost some of his precious speed, stamina, and reflexes. He loses to Frazier and Norton and his future is uncertain, then what happens? The same guys he loses to are demolished by Foreman in 2 rounds.

At 32 he is written off and no longer floating like a butterfly or stinging like a bee. His own corner was described as "looking like they were about to attend a funeral" (when we were kings) and Ali had to uplift their spirits. Foreman was the overwhelming favorite and his team even prayed they wouldn't kill Ali (although Foreman later said he actually wanted to).

Prior to the upset, Patterson had been the only 2x heavyweight champion. Ali won by KO against a 25 year old undefeated undisputed champion, a former gold medalist who had a 92% KO ratio. For those who disagree, SHOW ME a signature win with better numbers than those. I do not want to hear about quantity over quality/rematches, im talking about individual signature/legacy fights.

 

Schmeling beating Louis was a marvelous win top 50 even but Louis wasnt the champion, he was a young contender. Still impressive but not as impressive as beating an undefeated champion.

Louis beating him in the rematch was also impressive but again, Schmeling was NOT the champion, was past his prime, and already had some losses on his record.

Yes i give Holyfield tons of credit but i cannot stress enough that beating a post prison version of Tyson who had been beaten before is not as impressive as beating an undefeated boogeyman champion who easily beat 2 of your greatest rivals.

I give Barrera TONS of credit for beating Hamed. An undefeated super star who sold tons of tickets and dazzled crowds with his speed and power. The only problem in comparing it to Ali vs foreman is that hamed wasnt the undisputed champ of the division, it was for a vacant paper belt.

Lamotta vs Robinson is debatable, to be honest. We're talking about a guy considered #1 across all time and tjis blue collar slugger gets an upset through sheer will power. Had he knocked out robinson id have no problems placing this win above Ali's.

Klitschko vs Peter??? Are you drunk?

Mosley beat Forest by decision and it was only for 1 belt. Neither guy was the dominant reigning champ of the division.

Margarito already had 5 losses when Mosley beat him.

Yes ironically Foreman might have Ali beat in that regard. Ironically he wasnt favored to win and people wrote him off. It's revisionist history to look at the clash of styles and not give him credit.

I still think Ali has the edge because even though Frazier was undefeated he wasn't the same stay busy gym rat when foreman fought him. He wasnt as sharp as he was in FOTC.