When did Muhammad Ali start being considered a all time great ?

All other boxing authorities stripped Ali. Fleischer did not. Nat's long history pushing for blacks in boxing is well documented. N

It's not a question of what I think how history unfolded. Ali was considered nothing more than a fringe ATG at best prior to his comeback to beat Foreman and then Frazier in Manila. That's boxing history. You don't know and you want history to be something it was not. Sorry what you believe just was not the case.

 

Beating foreman .that was it. amazing. harry carpenter nearly had a heart attack.the greatest upset ever.

 

Why fight in wars ?its much easier to start them and let.the working class take all the risk.mind how you go.

 

After beating foreman...he's an ATG. There will be deniers and haters, but the truth is he won a fight he wasn't supposed to win. Regardless of politics, it was a great moment in boxing.

 

It really was an amazing event. I watched it again the other night and was just so impressed with Ali, even past peak.

 

Harry Carpenter He read that fight wrong ,I remember him saying ,"Ali is so tired he can hardly lift his hands up",about a minute later he threw the right and ko'd George!atsch

 

Fleischer ranked them again in1971 and he was getting considerable flak for not including Ali in his top ten at the time, in fact he wrote editorials defending his position.

There was a growing feeling that Ali was an ATG by then, worthy to be considered alongside Louis,Dempsey,Johnson etc.
Both Jersey Joe Walcott and Zora Folley publicly called Ali great,we were not a small minority.
I did live through the time ,I was born in1948.

 

Fleischer did have prejudices ,he wanted the heavyweight champion to be a role model but he was colour blind as far as race went.He put the support of his then budding magazine squarely behind Harry Wills trying to push his chances for a title fight with Dempsey and he continued to recognize Ali as champion after the WBA stripped him of their version of the title.

 

Older man, pardon me but you should admit that prime Ali would've easily jousted through ATG you just mentioned alongside.

 

Absolutely agree, McVey. When I said he was prejudiced I never meant he was racist.

Anyone who has Joe Louis as 6th best heavy, let alone in 1971 without factoring in the likes of Ali, Frazier. Foreman, Holmes, Tyson, Lewis or Holyfield, has to have some prejudice to cloud his thinking.

 

I rate Ali the number one heavyweight of all time and I'm happy to say so, I don't need any cajoling into admitting it.:huh

As for, " easily jousting through them ,"I don't think any one easily beats prime versions of Louis,Dempsey ,and Johnson.:-(

 

Fleischer was extremely partial to the older era,,it's a common failing to consider your own era the best.