Ali's legacy had he retired in 1973?

with the 3 years in Exile, I don't agree that Frazier beating Ali was better than Liston coming off of 8 career defining wins.

But it is all about what you rate a fighter on. Me, I always rate a fighter based on who they beat. But if you base it on accomplishments. Even if you take Ali's entire career, I don't even know if you can place him in the top 5 with that criteria as other people have achieved Much more than he has.

 

Top 3, or Top 5.

 

Fringe all time great.

 

It's an interesting one. I think the first point to highlight is that Ali's exile becomes a much greater "What If?" scenario. Ali's career has a cinematic quality to it, with Zaire being the completion of a seven year redemption arc. Without that, you're left with unfinished business, where the freakishly gifted champion was robbed of his prime years and never regained the title.

So you're likely left with two strongly opposing views; one where Ali was an ATG and would have ran up bigger numbers and a stronger resume if he hadn't been stripped of the title. The other being that he was eventually exposed by Frazier and Norton. There would be a much greater variance in ranking compared to what we generally see how where he is the consensus GOAT at heavy or very close to it.

It would be hard to place him above Louis based on longevity alone, and without Foreman and Frazier x2 there isn't the same depth on his resume. He would still be in the conversation of great champions though, but like Dempsey, Johnson, Marciano etc it would be easier to pick holes in the record than it is at present.