Is Ali the HW GOAT?

Ali is The Greatest. Maybe a case to be made for Louis.

Usyk isn’t Top 10. Hardly Top 20.

 

Yeah, Ali is still the GOAT. I think that people will calm down once Usyk has retired for a few years and the dust settles. He's a phenomenon and a legend, but I don't see any argument that convinces me he's anywhere near the GOAT discussion, especially at HW. Cruiserweight is a different story though.

 

In my opinion you can only be the best of your era so it's difficult to call anyone the GOAT.

To me there is no way of proving Ali was better or worse than Uysk or Mayweather was better or worse than Sugar Ray Robinson and so on so forth I could give hundreds for examples of this. That's pretty much my basic stance on the discussion of the GOAT.

 

Cool I hear you. But many of these debates go well beyond achievements and numbers. That's were a lean back to my position.

 

Ali is the GOAT.

Ali might just be the most important athlete in history.

 

I voted Yes for this poll but a case can be made for Joe Louis.

However I do find it understandable the younger generation is slowly moving away from Ali. It’s bound to happen as yesterday’s greats fade further and further into history. I mean honestly Ali’s last win in boxing was 47 years ago. That’s a long time. Ali benefits from modern media and having all his significant fights on film. Had he fought in say the era of Sullivan many names may have surpassed him by now.

 

Hard to mess with the names on his resume tbf Liston,Patterson,Norton, Frazier,foreman,spinks to name a few

 

I think that is fair. The only heavy with comparable accomplishments is Joe Louis.

Usyk's legacy is always going to be controversial and hard to define, because he is a two-weight champ, but would have been a fairly huge or at least decent sized heavy by any historical standards. His heavyweight opponents are massive, and even most of his cruiser opponents would have been fairly big heavies in most eras, because of the 200 pound cruiser limit and re-hydration.

Also, as of now, he is undefeated. So on the balance, it is very hard not to be impressed by this generational talent.

But Ali's legacy is almost unique at heavy, outside of Louis, both is quality and quantity of wins:

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/muhammad-ali-top-ten-victories-name-em.732074/

Both uber-elite fighters, and they share the same height, reach, birthday, and "dragon energy," as Kanye termed it.

 

Ali is 100% the HW GOAT for me. The fact he reigned for pretty much two decades, beat a who's who of top competition, faced all challengers, reinvented his style as he aged - not to mention the fact he didn't even fight during his prime years.
He is the benchmark for all others to follow - and I'm surprised sometimes at how easily greatness is bestowed on modern fighters who haven't achieved a fraction of what Ali did (e.g. when the Tyson Fury hype train was at its peak). I think Usyk is an ATG fighter but I don't think he has the longevity at HW to crack the ATG top ten.

 

Cmon Pook. Not even top 10?

 

Usyk is the goat but idk if he’s the goat HW hasn’t had enough fights.

 

No heavyweight has a deeper resume than Ali so yes he is the goat

 

No. Usyk has 23 fights and 14 KO’s. What would you consider the absolute minimum to be to declare someone GOAT?

Let’s for the sake of argument say Usyk is the GOAT. Then do you consider it possible for the next guy that comes along with 10 fights and 5 KO’s to be the GOAT?