Is Muhammad Ali the #1 Heavyweight of all time?

I think we'd all be a little remiss by not having Jean Pierre Coopman challenge the winner of that one.:good

 

audley Harrison v any of them

 

Ali is the greatest heavyweight boxing personality of all time if you look at the big picture and the era he was active in.

Inside and outside the ring he was larger than life and a pretty good boxer too!

Lennox Lewis doesn't even come close, it's frustrating to see so many from the UK who keep peddling this nonsense!

 

If he isn't then he's a very close second.

 

I have Sullivan and Louis before him.

 

Ali is the best fairly clearly. He is the only HW that can claim to have beaten possibly three of the top ten HW's in history in good ring condition with his wins over Liston, Foreman, and Frazier, two of which he defeated when he himself was past his best days. He was undefeated and untouchable in his prime, and his overall resume dwarfs any other ATG HW in terms of quality opposition. There was absolutely no one you could point to that Ali avoided.

 

I tend to lean toward ali as greatest heavyweight based on all around factors, being skill resume etc. But, he is not without rival. Surely Louis and Johnson could stake claim for that title, and from a pure skill perspective mike Tyson's name could also be mentioned. Jack Dempsey is also growing on me and is somewhere up top along with Frazier. Very tough to weigh all of the factors, but Ali's transcendence of the sport into something much much more gives him the edge.

 

Great heavyweights don't lose to Berbick and Holmes.

Tyson destroyed both.

 

His only serious challenger for the accolade is Joe Louis.

Otherwise he enjoys a ratio of 2/1 over other potential challengers, in all the key indices by which we can evaluate a heavyweight champion, which are not open to interpretation.

 

Depends on your criteria. Also depends if you gave him the decision over Norton in their rematch and rubber, as well as the second Frazier fight and when he met Jimmy Young. Generally if he's not rated as no.1 he's shoe in for number 2. Personally I like Louis at 1.

 

I voted 'Yes'. There's certainly an argument for Louis.
There's an argument for Johnson, though I don't necessarily put Johnson 2nd or 3rd.
If Sullivan or Dempsey had been a bit more long-term focused ..... if Jeffries had gotten over on Johnson in '05 ..... maybe I'd be considering them, too.

 

There have been a number of heavyweights who have been put forward as potential conquerors for Ali over the years, Jeffries, Johnson, Dempsey, Marciano, (big gap where he put it beyond much doubt), Tyson, Lewis etc.

We can never ultimately prove that they wouldn’t, but in all the measures that we can prove i.e. title defences, longevity, title reign, wins over champions, wins over ranked opponents, he greatly surpasses the challengers who are levelled against him in the hypothetical field!

 

Not even top 50.