My dad watched Ali's knock out of Foreman live George at that time was unstoppable. Everyone in Ali's dressing room was crying before the fight. He said since then he has never seen anything more spectacular. He has watched hell a lot of boxing as well and to think ali missed 3 years of his prime that's really scary Top 3 for sure of all time.
Depends how you judge fighters, do you judge them on ability alone or what they achieved? Men with less ability can achieve more. It all depends on what era you are in. It's the men you beat that make you great. For me Ali is top 3
Number #1 of all-time. He fought guys before his prime and after his prime but never in his prime. His prime years were spent in prison and he still came out and beat champions and beast. Who in history can top that?
At heavyweight I have him number 1. He was the top heavyweight in arguably the strongest era, when past his best, he was the youngest heavyweight champion when he won the title, he was the first 3 time heavyweight champion, he had wins over other greats in Liston, Foreman and Frazier.
Hes wins over liston,foreman,Frazier alone are incredible he beat those guys while they were at their best despite him not even being at his best.
When was Ali in jail ??? He wasn't but they robbed us of seeing 3 1/2 years of his prime for purely political reasons but it made no difference to the fact ........... MUHAMMAD ALI IS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME !!!!!!!!!!
Ali NEVER went in prison. He lost his boxing license but evaded a prison sentence for over 3 yrs.... :hi: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/muhammad-ali-refuses-army-induction
Ali is top 5 for me, used to be my no.1 but I've seen too many flaws since I held that view. And as many times as I watch his fights against Norton I can't see him winning more than 1 of them even tho he got the nod off the judges twice.