Past champions opinions on who was the best

Foreman may have felt Ali was the best at one time... I don't know. But he thinks Louis is the best all time HW. And Marciano just behind him.

Tyson speaks highly of Ali and probably thinks he's the GOAT compared to the rest of the past champions. He loved Jack Dempsey, personally. He loved the little guys - Henry Armstrong, etc.

Frazier said that Louis and Marciano were the best and that he was the 3rd best and thought that both Louis and Marciano could beat Ali if he could.

Holmes gets washy and back and forth. Most recently, he thinks of Ali highly (In Ringside ATG HW DVD) and praises him claiming that he's better than Louis and would've beaten Louis. Holmes thinks he's #1 though.

Sugar Ray Robinson admired Armstrong and didn't want to fight him. But fighting people you love is the ultimate sign of showing your respect (Which also helps them out financially, of course which is why it is).

Marciano probably would have said Joe Louis was the best. He probably would've believed he was the best, though. And he did feel that Ali was underrated (During the 60's).

 

Louis said at Marciano's funeral that Rocky was the best. Whether or not he actually believed that, he explicitly stated after Ali's prime, on camera, that he did not consider Muhammad to be number one. During the same program with Howard Cosell on ABC (which Mendoza refers to in post #9), Jersey Joe Walcott stated his opinion that Ali would have defeated any of the heavyweights preceding his second title reign. (Mendoza, I don't recall precisely when this interview was taped, but wasn't it after Manila?)

At the end of his life, Louis was watching Holmes-Berbick from ringside, and seemed to be analyzing Larry. Witnesses who saw him claimed that he appeared to know in his own mind how to deal with Holmes. I suspect that he truly believed he was superior to all the other heavyweight champions through Holmes.

Ali once told Louis off-camera, "I could have beaten you." For a moment, Joe cast aside his veneer of modesty, broke out in a broad smile, and shut Muhammad up by shooting back, "Only in your dreams!" (This was reported by Chris Berman on ESPN the day Louis passed away.) As Robinson was so close to both Louis and Ali, it must have been uncomfortable for him to be in the middle of this kind of interpersonal tension.

Jeffries named Johnson as the apex heavyweight, returning the favor to Lil' Artha. Jack Blackburn named Sam Langford as the best to his student Louis. (In private, Blackburn reportedly claimed to others that Johnson's being a mover would enable him to prevail over Louis.) Langford, in turn, gave this distinction to Joe Gans. (Gans himself idolized Fitzsimmons.)

SRR's reputation as the P4P GOAT was certainly boosted by Armstrong's gushing praise following their match that he could never have beaten Ray even on his very best day. LaMotta has also stated many times that Robby was the greatest. (He said this on-camera to Curt Gowdy, with Robinson sitting beside him.)

It should be noted that champions themselves don't always correctly predict the outcome of pairings between two common former opponents or sparring partners, although there have been some excellent such predictions. (Randy Shields penned a very good forecast of SRL-Hearns I, for example.) Hence, in many cases, these are speculative opinions, as is true for the rest of us. (Notice that John Garfield refrains from this kind of comparative analysis in favor of reminisces. Admirable and commendable, but that brand of mature restraint will never result in 30,000 posts! With him though, it's all about pith, quality over quantity. I'm just glad he hangs out with us children from time to time!)

Tunney stated in print that he rated Dempsey at the forefront, while indicating at the same time that he felt he had Jack's number. Of course Gene's idol was Corbett. Tommy Gibbons idolized his big brother.

Frazier and Marciano seem to have been the most vocal heavyweight champions in support of Louis (among those who had completed careers in Marciano's case).

Mickey Walker idolized Dempsey, but didn't express any fear of facing him in a proposed fight for Jack's title in his autobiography. Louis scared the hell out of him though. ("I knew that even on my best day I couldn't have licked him.") Walker did not speak about any of his opponents in such terms.

Archie Moore held out for Burley. Robinson may have said he was too pretty to fight Burley, but that's not the same as saying he didn't think he could win.

Sharkey rated Dempsey over Louis. One indication of Joe's opinion of himself surfaced when he explained his loss to Schmeling. "I though I was hot ****."

 

:good Awesome post. Really enjoyed reading it.

 

I didnt know Jeffries picked Johnson. I had read that Blackburn privately stated that Johnson would have beaten Louis,and Gerald Suster mentions it in his book the Champions.

 

Foreman said Lewis is without doubt the greatest of all time. Vitali Klitschko says Lewis is the biggest name in boxing history and Ali said that Lewis was, "The greatest".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV-OplDwnZY

 

If you guys listen to the radio matchs from the 60's the heavyweights, and seen the Ali Marciano computer fight, Louis seem to be ALWAYS picking Marciano.

Pick him over Ali, and Dempsey if I recall. Did Marciano fight Tunney in there some were?? Was pretty sure Louis said Marciano would catch Tunney sooner or later.

 

Foreman is fickle and did it at the time after Lewis beat Tyson. Check Foreman's site, he doesn't even have Lewis in his top 10. And in that video, all Burt does is praise him but he has him rated like #19 or something. Behind both Tyson and Holyfield... so much for being best of the era for Bert.

 

Great contribution to the thread. Very nice read.