Most POPULAR fighter ever

Pelé maybe?

 

No. Tiger Woods, Joe Montana, Micheal Jordan are easily more popular than Ali.

 

Muhammad Ali.

 

Dude, the most celebrated and adulated athlete ever is Edison Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé.

The world extends beyond the USA, FYI , and in this world the most popular sport is soccer :deal................

 

nope ali is known everywhere micheal jordon mainly in america elsewhere aswell but not as much as ali

 

Reading through this thread, it just hit me that only 8% of American own a passport.

 

Joe Montana? :rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl

 

Google it. Reports exist.

 

something else you have to consider is longevity pele and ali are still rememberd 40 50 years later will jorden and woods also be rememberd to the same extent

 

muhammad ali by far. Muhammad Ali is the only human being alive allowed in any country he pleases including North Korea. I think that says something.

 

Isn't Maradona more popular?, I'm damn sure he is.

 

I was pointing out to him just in the USA. I truly dont know many stars in sports outside of boxing that are outside the USA.

 

No way Maradona is more popular than Pelé. Maradona's actually more unpopular than popular.

Maradona's popularity peaked while he was playing for Napoli, in Italy. That one year, Napoli won the league championship for the first time in countless number of years (he also lead Napoli to a second title three years later).

Before that, he played a couple of years in Spain where he didn't do much to help his popularity: nightlife scandals, fights with the team's coach, cocaine addiction... plus he was injured most of the time.

Moreover, his first world cup showing in 1982, which ended for him with a red card alla Zidane, was a disappointing one. Argentina was the defending champion but lost early in the elimination rounds against Brazil. Maradona was expected to fill the highly regarded Mario Kempes' shoes but failed to do so. His popularity took a shot.

He regained a lot of popularity in 1986 when he led Argentina to regain the World Cup.

After 1990, things went downhill for Maradona and became a running gag: cocaine addiction, rumours of ties with the mob, rumours of an illegitimate son, fiscal scandals, more...

 

Ali, Dempsey, Louis, Tyson, De La Hoya.

 

The point is the average American doesn't care much about what's going on outside his country. This thread represents one small example.

When asked which athlete is the most popular, the knee-jerk reaction for Americans is to point to American athletes performing in sports that are typically popular in the USA (see Huki's post, who I believe is American, correct me if I'm wrong). The same knee-jerk reaction applies when Americans are asked to make the same assessment on an international level.

Soccer is not a mainstream sport in the USA (though it's a very popular sport in terms of participation) therefore it is viewed as marginal whereas the reality is completely different.

Soccer is BY FAR the most watched, discussed, practiced, celebrated sport on this planet - this is a fact.

Another fact is NFL football, NBA basketball, ML baseball together don't come close to soccer when it comes to popularity.

Still, you'll always have Americans to ignore who Pelé is.