Sports Illustrated most overrated and underrated heavyweight championship fight.

To say Ali v Foreman is overrated is inaccurate. I've never heard anyone say it was a great fight, just that it was a great moment or great occassion. I enjoy watching it, but only because I know the outcome and what it meant to boxing. But I've never heard anyone refer to it as a spectacle of boxing per se.

 

I'm inclined to agree but feel the need to clarify why. And shall do so in summary, in three words;

Sugar Ray Robinson.

Maybe I overrate Ali but I see him as the best HW of all time, bar none. He is run close by Joe Louis and I know many classic posters and even more old timers will go Louis on this one, but for me Ali in his pomp was untouchable. And then after his prime he changed his style to still be effective at the top level.

In terms of the 'greatest of all time', for me, again, there is only one and that's SRR. My all time top five list has Ali in there with Duran, Bob Fitz and Willie Pep. But maybe that's more to do with my lack of knowledge of some of the older boxers.

In terms of Ali. Best heavyweight ever? Yes. Overrated? Yes. Does it matter in the grand scheme of things? No. He's the best thing to have ever happened to the sport.

 

A big statement, But quite possibly true.

 

it is the very fact that ali came back with his tools diminished that he proved his greatness.he beat all of arguably the greatest batch of heavies in history,and he had to dig really deep down to do it.if ali doesn't posses the greatest resume in heavyweight history can someone tell me who does?

 

I dunno i enjoy it.

Yeah Ali's career was lucky in a lot of ways !

but show me a HW with a better combination of skills ?

 

though i think ALI gets overrated, that guy went too far (and was probably trying to sell magazines). he knocks him for getting beat by an "unheralded" ken norton and going the distance w/ lightly regarded jimmy young. norton is the same guy that he wrote was part of a classic HW fight w/ larry holmes so obviously the writer must think he was a top hw. young was obviously a difficult fighter holding wins over foreman and lyle

 

I have to wonder if some people who criticize the Ali/Foreman fight have actually watched it as of late.
Yes, Ali definitely laid on the ropes a lot and let Foreman pound his body. But, throughout the fight Ali was landing a lot of sneaky punches. I believe he was winning the fight when he KO'd Foreman.
A myth has grown since that fight that all Ali did was lay on the ropes, threw almost no punches, and only opened up in the final seconds of the final round. That's BS. He was very effective in picking Foreman apart with quick, sharp punches throughout that fight.

Granted, it was by no means an intensely exciting fight, but it certainly wasn't boring.

 

I would own that author if he was on this forum :yep F*cking clown :deal

 

I stopped reading after it said Ali was overrated. Absolutely ridiculous.

 

I had Ali winning at the time of the knockout.

 

I almost **** myself when he said Ali didn't have heavyweight power, reasoning being: he couldn't hold Joe Frasier off of him and George Foreman destroyed Joe Frasier. atsch Ok Writer, Ali Knocked out George Foreman, stopped Frasier and KO'd Liston. :good

 

It's human nature for a few people to want go go against the grain purely for attention, and althoug a case can be made for Ali being far from unbeatable in his prime, I feel he is the greatest Heavyweight of all time. The worst detractors of them all are the one's who say, "Ali is only considered the greatest because he kept saying he was". He proved it in the ring just like any other champion, and he beat every single noteworthy contender there was in his two reigns. People criticize him for losing to Norton and arguablu to Young, but those were all faded versions of the Ali of the 60s. In fact, the version of Ali that faced Frazier three times and foreman weren't peak version. The peak Ali was undefeated, and probably would have been so for a long time.

He faced everybody, beat everybody, and that's all you can ask of a fighter. He proved he was the best.

 

Yup, there is that myth that ali was taking huge amounts of punishment on the ropes until Foreman fatigued and Ali got him out of there. Pffft, bull! Ali blocked most of Foreman's shots and was countering with blistering flurries very effectively in between Foreman's lugging punches. So it wasn't just Ali's rope-a-adope which did in Big George, because Ali's clean and accurate punches had a big role in wearing the big man down.

Ali was well ahead on my sorecard at the time of the stoppage.

 

ali actually hurt foreman a few times in that fight before the end.some of his counter flurries coming out of the corners and off the ropes was brilliant.i don't know of any other heavyweight in history who could have carried out that strategy against an animal like foreman.

 

i agree.
in principle ali should never have been able to pull that off.