Is Ali still the best ever?

x2

 

No P4P was created to make smaller men feel better about themselves. Size isn't everything, but size matters. The ability to give and take can't be overlooked. Ali was taller, heavier, had a longer reach, was faster (hands and feet), and had a much better chin than Louis... and that's just for starters.

 

Definitely the best ever heavyweight.

 

An Ali-Louis bout would have been a superfight. No doubt in my mind.


I give the edge to Ali because of his improvisational skills mainly.

 

I have Louis around 10... behind the likes of Holmes, Holyfield, Foreman, Tyson, Lewis, Bowe, V. and W. Klitschko... but I could see putting him as high as #2. It's just opinion... everyone has one and most of them stink! I could see Ali winning against the giants much easier than I could see Louis doing so.

 

I agree Burt!!!

 

Ali would have made both Lewis and Wlad look like mummies. They'd be hitting thin air and didn't even have the stamina to match George Foreman's.

 

No, he wouldn't.

 

Bob hope

 

next thing, ali critics, even "well meaning" critics, are going to say that ali just wasn't a really good technical boxer, though, in the classic sense. pulled straight back, hands low, yadda yadda 1960 gold medal :deal

ali had more courage in his pinky nail than these folks that talk so easily about draft dodging

 

I don't know how old you are sir, but who on this thread brought up the subject of "draft dodging"?. What the hell do you sir know about the DRAFT that I had to face, and several of my buddies lost their lives due to honoring the selective service draft in WW2 ?. Nada,I'm sure.
This thread is about Ali's place in the heavyweight division, and not to
bring politics into the fray...Sick to the damn thread sir...

 

The argument for Louis lies in his domination. He pancaked his era. Ali fought stiffer competition but then it showed. Whether the '60s Ali beats the '71 Frazier is tough one. Furthermore, while Ali arguably lost to Norton in their last fight Louis knocked out Walcott in the rematch to better underline who was boss.

 

Frazier was a great fighter but not top ten. In his prime Ali had the speed and endurance to outbox Joe over distance. Joe relying so greatly on one punch makes him odds on to lose to the past great boxers who won the hwt championship. Such a huge flaw would be heavily exploited.

 

Oh yes he would I'm sure of that.

 

Looking at the first five rounds of Ali-Patterson I and Ali-Cooper II, I just don't see the case for Frazier's hook reaching his body enough to have a chance on the cards before Ali clinched the scoring. The FOTC was no picnic for the younger Frazier, who had remained active through Ali's exile.

Smoke would have been his most determined and greatest challenger prior to 1970, but while I think Joe would have been his first opponent to receive a second title shot, the confusing and perceptive Norton (who Ali admitted to Cosell on camera could see right through Muhammad's mind games) is more likely the first challenger to defeat a never exiled Ali.