Is AJ the most popular heavyweight of all time?

Mike Tyson will always be the most popular and most remebered heavyweight, he was just unique.

But .. AJ is unique too and in time of social media he gathered a fanbase around him that's just INSANELY big. AJ is the most popular fighter of all divisions in this era and thanks to him boxing is becoming big again in the US.

 

Or when TV was prevalent but only had 3 channels.

Ali is and will always be the most popular heavyweight but literally a third of the airwaves in the US showed his fights at the time.

 

Ali was the most popular man in the entire world in the 70s and 80s.

 

No way. Michael Jackson was more famous in the 80's.

 

Puerto Rican boxing is dead. No good fighters no more.

 

One would think. I just remember my dad always saying it was Ali. I found this article from 1983 saying Ali, but Thriller would have dropped not long after.

http://classic.esquire.com/muhammad-ali-is-the-most-famous-man-in-the-world/

 

4 world champions right now sucker!!

 

I’m not sure there is much understanding or appreciation for exactly how god damned famous and beloved the great Joe Louis was in his day.

 

Ali, Tyson, Dempsey, Louis, Marciano, Holyfield, all more popular.