why such dislike for ali?

Of course. If someone hates ******* behaviour, they will hate anyone who acts like an *******.

There's the difference between a pose, and genuine bad behaviour. Pre-fight trash talk isn't usually judged as someone's real persona, and often used for tactical advantage in the ring. Ali didn't just bait Frazier beforehand, but for a long time.

Robinson was a wife-beating ****, for example.

 

Yes they do. Check out the 'most despicable fighters' thread that was up here a while ago. All 3 of those guys were on it.

 

It was just a counter-punch, regarding 'bath houses'.

No real point, just some more information on the youngster.

 

:goodexactly. The boxes we must tick for the criteria of greatness among fighters should be the same as they have always been. "did he dominate?" "Did he win key fights within his peak in style?" "did he beat great fighters?" It sould not include new ali boxes that have nothing to do with boxing. "did he transcend the sport" "did he have charisma" "did he make a political impact" etc etc etc

Ali ticks all the real boxes as well as any ATG so he is therefore as good as it gets. As a fighter.

However, It does grate on me that BECAUSE of ali's high profile as a PERSONALITY there are now new boxes to tick.

As you say many of the people who will argue to the death that ali was the best of all time (who dont know who joe louis is) also think bruce lee might take him.

 

All you guys with the negatives have 1 thing in common, not 1 of you can knock his fighting ability.

All this ****, "he called people names!" or "he didnt want to fight in a war!", well guess what? he no different to the majority of people on this forum! Its a boxing match for christs sake! "oh but he called people names", FFS give your heads a shake, each and every person he "called names" got a hell of a bigger payday for it. Im not saying all he said was right but for ****s sake will some of you listen to yourselves?

 

:huh did you actually read the thread? Guess not.

 

Exactly. Great call; Bruce Lee is another icon, of whom anyone but a diehard martial arts buff (and even many of them, really :-() will remain steadfastly convinced of his ironclad immortal omnipotence.

It can't be enough that Ali's the #1 or #2 (either way, by a mere baby tarantula's urticating hair) heavyweight in boxing history...his "affect on the sport (or indeed, on sports)" and "largeness of spirit" have to propel him well beyond SRR without any regard as to why the term "pound for pound" was even cooked up for the latter.

 

If you stop and look, there actually hasn't been much negative comment toward Ali for a couple of pages now. Perhaps you ought to go back a ways to quote a few before taking a stand like that. :yep

 

JM36,

Simply, put,,,,,,,he was a boxer/fighter,,,,,,,,,,no more - no less.
Everything else can be debated.

On a lighter note,

July 1966

"TAXES TOO HIGH, ALI TO BREAK WITH KENTUCKY BACKERS'

World Heavyweight Champion, Muhammad Ali recently stated, 'that he definitely won't
renegotiate the 7-year contract he has with the 11-member Louisville Sponsoring
Group (LSG) because, I don't want no white people taking all my money.'

 

yes i did read it, and read every reply. some have constructive criticdism which is fair enough and is welcomed, but some take it as an opportunity to be some kinda moral judgementalists. I thought i would add my own 2 cents to it like everyone else has. Im entitled to my say like the rest , no?

 

One would think so...

 

yes mate, i have stopped and looked and i stand by what i said

 

Of course you are but funny that you do the same as the people you accuse of beeing "moral judgementalists". And criticism is allowed, isn´t it?

I didn´t read anybody saying that "he didnt want to fight in a war!" that´s why I wrote that. And Ali didn´t just call people names, what he did to Terrell, Patterson and Frazier was far worse.

Anyway, I think you have to make a difference between Ali the man and Ali the fighter. I admire him as a fighter and I dislike him as a person. Same goes for Monzon for example.