Ali is the greatest athlete in the history of mankind

[SBleeder]

if you break it down, ali was the best boxer, jordan the best basketball player, gretsky the best hockey player, mays the best baseball player, johnson the best track star, and brown the best football player. you can eliminate brown, johnson, and mays, cause they didn't revolutionalize the sport. so you're left with jordan, gretsky, and ali. alot of people can now copy the style's of jordan and gretsky, but no hw can move as fast as ali, so ali wins this one!

SRR was the greatest fighter of all time.

Willie Mays falls short of Babe Ruth, for the simple fact that Babe Ruth was a dominant pitcher as well as a great hitter.

I rank Walter Payton ahead of Jim Brown.

[StarshipTrooper]

I rank Walter Payton ahead of Jim Brown.

Got to agree with you there: Payton was the finest running back I ever saw (and I can't stand the Bears).

Poet

[Scott9945]

SRR was the greatest fighter of all time.

Willie Mays falls short of Babe Ruth, for the simple fact that Babe Ruth was a dominant pitcher as well as a great hitter.

I rank Walter Payton ahead of Jim Brown.

And I can't rate someone who averaged 5.2 yards per carry for his entire career below anyone.

[New England]

what are you basing athleticism on?


the purely athletic activities (running, jumping, swimming, climbing trees, etc) are different from boxing


in boxing you tame the lion
much of your athletic qualities are removed from he game in boxing, to allow for the focus of your energies to be entirely on the act of boxing, which is more about skills than athletic qualities.


when you play say basketball you don't really do that. if you have speed and height and ups you can take the ball to the rack against smaller and slower men and they can do nothing to stop you.


you can send a brilliant athlete out there with his size and speed and he will almost always dominate
it's a different style of game with a different and more purely athletic goal in my eyes

same with running

i don't care how schooled of a runner you are (like a schooled boxer who can easily defeat a better athlete, a bigger man, etc)
you just cant beat an outright superior runner with true gifts
it just doesn't work. if he's faster than you are outright (say a guy off the street against prime randy moss, the fastest open field in the history of the NFL, who was also the fastest track runner in his state in high school)




chris arreola could never beat moss in a 100 meter if moss was healthy. ever. it's just not going to happen if moss stays healthy. thats not how bodies work. you do not develop world class speed, just as you don't develop world class punching power where there is none regularly)
but arreola would bust him up if they boxed because of his skills.

making it a less purely athletic endeavor in my eyes
and more skill based than the other purely athletic sports


meaning that those men in the purely athletic sports have given us a more of a body of work to base the claim that they are "better all around athletes" in terms of the gifts you were born with
you're born with your running stride
you have to learn how to box

[ChopperRead]

The greatest athlete in the history of mankind got knocked on his ass by Chuck Wepner.

[StarshipTrooper]

what are you basing athleticism on?


the purely athletic activities (running, jumping, swimming, climbing trees, etc) are different from boxing


in boxing you tame the lion
much of your athletic qualities are removed from he game in boxing, to allow for the focus of your energies to be entirely on the act of boxing, which is more about skills than athletic qualities.


when you play say basketball you don't really do that. if you have speed and height and ups you can take the ball to the rack against smaller and slower men and they can do nothing to stop you.


you can send a brilliant athlete out there with his size and speed and he will almost always dominate
it's a different style of game with a different and more purely athletic goal in my eyes

same with running

i don't care how schooled of a runner you are (like a schooled boxer who can easily defeat a better athlete, a bigger man, etc)
you just cant beat an outright superior runner with true gifts
it just doesn't work. if he's faster than you are outright (say a guy off the street against prime randy moss, the fastest open field in the history of the NFL, who was also the fastest track runner in his state in high school)




chris arreola could never beat moss in a 100 meter if moss was healthy. ever. it's just not going to happen if moss stays healthy. thats not how bodies work. you do not develop world class speed, just as you don't develop world class punching power where there is none regularly)
but arreola would bust him up if they boxed because of his skills.

making it a less purely athletic endeavor in my eyes
and more skill based than the other purely athletic sports


meaning that those men in the purely athletic sports have given us a more of a body of work to base the claim that they are "better all around athletes" in terms of the gifts you were born with
you're born with your running stride
you have to learn how to box

Even in sports like the NFL and the NBA skill still trumps athleticism. I've seen plenty of world-class athletes wash out of both leagues because they simply didn't have the skills.....while players with far less athleticism had long, successful careers because they DID have the skills. Hell, a relatively unathletic Dirk Nowitzki picked up a ring this year while the "superior athlete" Kobe Bryant got shown the door early. People seriously overrate the impact of athleticism in sports other then track and field.

Poet

[Capaedia]

The greatest athlete in the history of mankind got knocked on his ass by Chuck Wepner.

Now either Chuck Wepner has some seriously underrated power and has just sent Muhammad Ali flying with a bodyshot.

Or like anyone without an agenda can see, Wepner took a few tricks from Liston and stood on his foot...

[New England]

Even in sports like the NFL and the NBA skill still trumps athleticism. I've seen plenty of world-class athletes wash out of both leagues because they simply didn't have the skills.....while players with far less athleticism had long, successful careers because they DID have the skills. Hell, a relatively unathletic Dirk Nowitzki picked up a ring this year while the "superior athlete" Kobe Bryant got shown the door early. People seriously overrate the impact of athleticism in sports other then track and field.

Poet

agreed.

i was trying to illustrate the spectrum and where the sports lie

i do believe that basketball is the more purely athletic sport than boxing
as are many positions in football.

there isn't a ton of skill involved in being a runningback, pass rusher, wide receiver, and a few other positions in foes
you gotta be either gotta be a fast beast or or just greasy and fast with hands

and dirk is seven feet tall, though.
i include that in his list of "gifts" :-S


and in terms of athleticism and nothing else
track and field
swimming (though unless the sport involves it, talent in swimming wont necessarily translate to talent in other sports)
climbing trees
wrestling

i'd rank these the highest and say they are most natural in terms of human activities where talent would allow one to excel


but,
who wins at the collegiate level in the football and basketball?
the team with the athletes, usually. they usually recruit athletes.

down the line when everybody is a man and gifted then skill trumps everything else, obviously, in those sports.

[DarkTerror88]

I rank Walter Payton ahead of Jim Brown.

Chi-Town love baby!!

[fitefanSHO]

muhammad ali is better than michael jordan, wayne gretski, lance armstrong, jim brown, willy mays and babe ruth combined.
(yea, this is for you DuncanJL lol!)

ya but was he better than Jim Thorpe?