Was Ali really the greatest boxer?

Question

or was he just the most entertaining because he made boxing more than just a sport

Answer 1

Sugary Ray Robinson is the best fighter of all time, Ali is the best Heavyweight of all time.

Answer 2

KEITH RIGHT Sugar Ray Robinson, Harry Greb, Joe Louis, Henry Armstrong, Rocky Marciano, Jack Johnson, Willie Pep, Muhammad Ali. They were the greatest boxers of all time and in no order

Answer 3

Most people answering this question probably have little knowledge of boxing history before Ali. In my opinion, the greatest boxer of all time was Gene Tunney. He defeated Jack Dempsey twice, only lost one bout (that to the great Harry Greb, whom Tunney defeated five times afterwards), and held the Heavyweight and Light-Heavyweight titles during a time when men fought hungry and were not overpaid and pampered like they are today. My selection for the greatest pound-for-pound was Harry Greb, who held the Middleweight title for five years while being legally blind in one eye, and fought all comers in all weight divisions. A great, but extremely unappreciated, champion!

Answer 4

No, he was the greatest CHARACTER in boxing though!

I would go for Jimmy Wilde or Sugar Ray Robinson.

Ali would probably have lost to Lewis, Tyson and maybe even Vitali Klitchko at their peaks though!

Also, people go on about Ali beating George Foreman, but he turned out to be overrated in the end, he easily beat Frazier and Norton, but apart from that he never really beat anybody else, in fact he was stopped by the average, and light punching Jimmy Young, and had a very tough time getting past Ron Lyle, who wasnt brilliant either!

Also, people forget that in their first fight Frazier absolutely spanked Ali!

And as the previous poster said, he got some VERY dubious decisions indeed, ALL three Norton fights, Jimmy Young, Doug Jones back in the 1960's and to a degree Ernie Shavers as well....they also had to rip his glove to give him time to recover from being iced by Henry Cooper!

Also, Ali wasnt that big a puncher, he was often lazy in fights, and couldnt work on the inside at all.

Answer 5

muhummad ali was by far, the greatest heavyweight boxing champion, he dominated the division when the division at its peak, hand speed, foot speed, and ringmanship has allowed muhummad ali to transcend the sport and become the most famous international athlete in modern history. ali has dominated the sport at the time when heavyweight fighters such as floyd patterson, ingemar johansson, sonny liston, ernie terrell, eddie machen, george chuvalo, cleveland williams, zora folley, jimmy ellis, jerry quarry, oscar bonavena, joe fraizer, george foreman, ken norton, ron lyle, jimmy young, earnie shavers, leon spinks, larry holmes, john tate, mike weaver, michael dokes, gerrie coetzee, tim witherspoon, pinklon thomas, greg page, tony tubbs, michael spinks, trevor berbick, and tony tucker were active in the ring.

Answer 6

The second part is truer! He was a huge personality, bigger than boxing, he was entertainment, politics and sport rolled into one,he tapped into the civil rights and peace movements of the era, and he was of course a great boxer, but i wouldnt say the greatest.

NEGATIVE;He had some defeats, Frazier, Norton, Spinks, Holmes and Berbick, he also got a few lucky decisions, against Norton (twice), Doug Jones and Jimmy Young, and both his fights against Liston were highly controversial. In addition he was badly floored by Henry Cooper, who would be a cruiserweight by todays standards. He also fought some very poor opposition, Richard Dunn, Chuck Wepner, Jean Pierre Coopmans and Alfredo Evangelista, and his fights against Evangelista and Young, as well as Joe Bugner and Oscar Bonavena were incredibly boring.

POSITIVE; He was involved in some of the most epic battles in the divisions history, Frazier 1 and 3, Foreman, all 3 Norton fights, and some of the most memorable, Liston 1 & 2, Henry Cooper, Spinks 2 etc, He fought every heavy of his era, from the best; Frazier, Foreman, Norton, Liston & Holmes, through to Good Heavies; Shavers, Quarry, Bugner, Mildenburger, Cooper, Patterson, Lyle, Young, Ellis, Williams, Foley, Chuvalo etc. He was incredibly brave, highly skilled, very durable, and made boxing truly entertaining.

In my opinion Sugar Ray Robinson was a better fighter, so possibly wre Henry Armstrong and Jimmy Wilde(amazing, he was smaller than even a flyweight but at his best was unbeatable, he even beat, bantams and feathers, and ko'd 200 pound guys in fairground fights), but its different eras and different divisions, so its all opinion really!

I actually think that some of the modern heavyweights may have been too big for him, Lewis particularly, who was taller, heavier, more skilled and with better stamina than say George Foreman at his peak.Remember, Foreman and Bugner aside, Ali was normally taller and heavier than most of his opponents!
Ali also struggled with shorter, hooking fighters (ie Frazier, Mildenburger and Cooper), so he might have found a peak Tyson difficult to deal with.

Ali was a poor inside fighter, he wasnt that good at mixing it up in close either.

Hope this ESSAY helps lol

PS Anyone seeing footage of Jack Johnson or Jim Jeffries would have to conclude Ali would have beaten both easily.

As for the 18th and 19th Century British bare knuckle guys, theyd probably have killed Ali in a bare knuckle bout, but equally, he'd have killed them in a modern bout, easily!

Answer 7

Hey tsubaki tsanjuro or whatever, that list that Felischer did was way before Ali had even finished his career. Obviously he wasn't gonna be as high. Awful post.

Ali was the greatest HW of all time, not quite the greatest P4P boxer.

Answer 8

Yes Ali was, with Sugar Ray Robinson 1A. Lots of fighters patterned their style after Ali. The movement, the constant jab, the ability to do more than just slug it out. Any time you can win a round without throwing a punch, you have to be one of the greatest "boxers" of all time.

Answer 9

Throw out all the non-sense, and you have the fighter who fought the hardest schedule ever seen in any sport. Babe Ruth never had to hit off of Nolan Ryan, Tiger never played, ermm..that other guy, Nicholas. But Ali fought THREE fellow all-time top ten greatest heavyweights. Rarely do fighters go up against one fellow all-timer. Ali's record was 5-1 with 4 knockouts. His strength of schedule was beyond difficult, it was murderous. And he whupped them all.

Answer 10

He was great for the sport, he prediticted what round he would end the fight & most times he was right. He put butts in the seats by having 1/2 the croud cheering for him & the other 1/2 wanted to see him get knocked out. He did some amazing things & fought more great fighters than any other fighter has ever done. I would stamp him as the greatest!!!!

Answer 11

Not in my opinion he wasnt.There has been better fighters in the lower weight classes.Do you think he would be as good as he was back then against lennox lewis or tyson in his prime im not so sure.Boxing was different back then but he was more advanced than most with boxing skills and thats why he was considered the best.His big mouth his looks and because he was a huge role model for the black people in very racist times of malcolm x and martin luthor king.