Because his record clearly shows there is no heavyweight from 1882 till 2021 that is greater than Ali. In term of accomplishments? , competition and CV, during his incredible career, Ali met the likes of Larry Holmes, Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson, George Foreman, Cleveland William,Archie Moore, Bob Foster, Ken Norton, Zora Folley, Jimmy Ellis, Henry Cooper, Ernie Terrell, Karl Midenberger, Oscar Bonavena, Jerry Quarry, Ron Lyle. He was able to beat them all…. all except Larry Holmes, who fought him when Ali was 38 years old and started struggling with vocal stutters and trembling hands ( parkinson disease). He won the undiputed heavyweight title 3 times, from 1964 to 1967, from 1974 to 1978, and he ragained it the same year before retiring (he was the first boxer to win the world heavyweight championship on three separate occasions) and he successfully defended this title 19 TIMES! Outside of the ring? , the fact that he spoke out against the Vietnam war, that he helped negotiate the release of 15 hostages in Iraq makes him even greater. In terms of skills? , his foudamentals were great enough to convince me that nobody, I repeat, nobody would be favoured to beat the 1966 Ali. You could conjure up any style you wanted to, Ali would still beat you up. The speed, the fight IQ and ring generalship, It was essentially like watching a heavyweight version of Sugar Ray Robinson. Boxing perfection at it's finest. Anyone who thinks that any heavyweight boxer ever beats the 1966 Ali, needs to get their life re-evaluated. For that reason Ali is the Greates heavyweight of all time. And it is unlikely he will ever be surpassed.
Sorry, but we don't and won't know how he would be in other eras of boxing. That is why I always say that he was very special and best of his era, but of all time ? I can't say anything...
Obviously whoever put that list up has zero knowledge or perhaps no shame, any genuine boxing fan would have been immensely embarrassed to post that.
Just when you think this can't get any worse: https://boxrec.com/en/ratings?r[rol...eight&r[country]=&r[stance]=&r[status]=&r_go=