Who has more fame Muhammad Ali or Oscar De La Hoya?

Fair point.

I'd say there is an equidistant gap from Ali's fame to Leonard's and from Leonard's to DLH's.


edit: Actually, make that: Ali --- Foreman --- Tyson --- Leonard --- his Fab-4 counterparts --- DLH

 

Tyson is certainly more known than Foreman IMO, at least as a person/fighter rather than a grill.

 

I'd think Tyson is better known than Foreman. I mean you can ask a middle aged woman who literally hates any combat sport and chances are she knows who Mike Tyson is and she will go "who?" for Foreman. I'm just guessing though.

 

Who is Oscar De La Hoya?

 

I don't know that he is. Foreman is culturally referenced a lot in various media, to a similar extent, and spanned more eras & generations than did Tyson - in the world heavyweight championship mix, no less. Plus he siphons a bit off Ali's fame as his most famous scalp (yes, as much as I love Joe, to non-diehards Foreman is the bigger/more famous win than either Manila or the rematch, and by some distance)

 

Hahahaa!!! Truth, when I talk to people about Foreman they only know him as the grill guy lol. Tyson seems to be the most well known boxer of all among the kids, but over all (young, old, and everything in between) Ali is still way more well known.

 

Nah, she'd know both. I believe they are on par, actually. Foreman is a name everyone in every demographic will know, if nothing else than as the guy Ali beat as the underdog. (and who, yes, later sold grills and various other products...and won a world heavyweight championship in his grandpa years)

 

If you stop a random person on the street and say "name as many heavyweight champion boxers as you can" you will get three names universally repeated: Ali, Foreman, Tyson. Maybe a Dempsey here or there, maybe a Marciano or a Holmes or Louis or Lewis or Klitschko or Schmeling, depending on the age or cultural background of the party in question, but you will find that pretty much only the above three are universal.

 

Famous scalp??? See I used to think like that until I realized that most people aren't like us, they don't like boxing. They like fighters. There are more Ali and Tyson fans that don't know ANY of their opponents, than there are boxing fans that know their careers. Saddens me but it's the harsh reality.

 

Tyson is well known because a. he finished his fights in the early rounds via radical fashion b. he stayed/stays relevant with notable roles in "hangover", talkshow appearances, hbo special, and comedy roasts...
c. He has a tattoo on his face which distinguishes him from any other public figure

 

Yes, but I'm telling you Foreman is on that same level of mainstream recognition, IMO somewhere in between Ali & Tyson. (nearer the latter, as Ali's fame dwarfs theirs)

Sure, there may be some who don't even know Ali and Foreman fought, but guarantee they know who both of them are.

There's nobody that knows Tyson but not Foreman, that's for sure. (and probably not many - except hermits or really old people who already were culturally outta touch in the 80's - who know Foreman but not Tyson)

I am speaking from experience, here. I've never dropped the name Foreman and met with puzzlement about who that was, even with people I'm 100% sure have never watched a match in their life. Like Ali's, his is enduring, trans-generational, carry-over fame (his bolstered from his crazy longevity when you include the high-profile comeback in the post-Tyson void, reintroducing him to 90's kids whose parents may have known him as the lummox in the Jungle) whereas Tyson is extremely famous to anyone that was a child or young adult or boxing fan in the 80's - but outside that slice of the population, even as visible as he is today with movie appearances, TV shows, and the like, he is at best a name some might know, maybe enough to match a tattooed face to, but no, he isn't more famous on the whole when you factor in the entire population than is Big George.

 

You're talking for US now. It'd be very different worldwide. Dempsey, Marciano, Schmeling- absolutely noone outside the boxing community knows these names on the street, Marciano; perhaps if you say Rocky, but it's not really his fame. I can speak for Europe and right now it'd probably go like this: Ali, Klitschko(it helps there are two, most people can't say who's the older one), Tyson, Lewis, Foreman, Frazier.

 

Honestly, I think you'd only get two, Tyson and Ali who are both some of the most famous sportsmen in history, perhaps you'd get a Klitschko from a casual sports fan as he's the "current guy" now. The others I wouldn't expect non-boxing followers to have heard of.

 

:conf

People who DKSAB are familiar with both the name & face of George Foreman, and not just from his long association with the Lean Mean Fat Burning Machine (although it helps, for certain)

I'm not just pulling this from my ass. I've literally had many conversations with a wide array of people of various ages who don't know or care a thing about the sport but for whom George Foreman is a readily identifiable (with the same ease as one might identify the face or name of Mike Tyson, or, in the case of the very old, more so), not the least bit obscure cultural reference.