Strongest fighter ever lived

[Schifoso]

Apparently Tyson was the exception to your "everyone" rule, because, if you can remember (specifically the interview that a thinner/less muscular Tyson gave while nearing the end of his prison term), Tyson lost quite a bit of weight/muscle mass while inside...

"It was not only Tyson's fortune that shrank. The man who walked free from prison looked a shadow of the 238-pound colossus who was handcuffed and led away to the cells in March 1992. He had kept himself fit in the prison gymnasium with daily workouts, but the awesome physique that used to promote fear in his opponents was much reduced." - 'The Release of Power' by Reg Gutteridge

His last fight was at 216 before prison, when he came out he was 220 and looked a lot bulkier than the lean muscle he naturally had. I'm sure everyone agrees.

[THE REAL NINJA]

this thread should not be called, "strongest fighter who every lived", it shud be called strongest champ who ever lived coz every1 is naming champs. there might be boxers who are physical beasts but were just crap at boxing so they never got their name up there, like Mariusz Pudzianowski who used to be an amateur boxer and if thats the case, hes the strongest. But if you just include the top guys i wud have to say Valuev. No boxer in the history of boxing wud be able to push away or move around valuev in a clinch, NONE. he cud just stay there and no1 cud push him, hes over 300lbs

yeah so was arnold schwarzenegger but if we start on that then names pop up that only a few of us know ...trust me i've tryed before with the "it's some guy we never heard of" no one seems to get it

[Yogi]

His last fight was at 216 before prison, when he came out he was 220 and looked a lot bulkier than the lean muscle he naturally had. I'm sure everyone agrees.

Yeah well, you see you're taking his weight from a fight that happened five months after his release from prison (he was released on March 25th of that year, and fought McNeely on Aug 19th...PLENTY of time to increase one's size quite significantly via the use of steroids), so how he looked or what he weighed for that fight has nothing to do with how Tyson looked when he was inside prison (the interview that they did of him in there DOES show a thinner and less muscular Mike Tyson, as does a photo I have of him being lead in handcuffs with a caption underneath it saying "he went to the Appeal Court in 1994") or when he first "came out" of prison (which Tyson's own & very first biographer describes in that quote I gave up above).

Whatever he did to get his weight back up to around the 220 (which, give or take a pound or two, was right around what he always weighed during most of his pro career), it doesn't change how he looked while in prison and on his immediate release...which was that of a thinner & less muscular man than what he looked like during his fights up to that point in time.

[Kid Achilles]

Really, Valuev might be up there. He has a HUGE frame, kind of like what Andre the Giant would look like if he dropped down to boxing shape. If we're talking about boxing strength, which correlates to pushing, pulling, and shoving in the clinches, Valuev might be one of the strongest.

Jeffries is up there though, certainly stronger than Tyson who was shoved away into the ropes by a soft Peter McNeely. For his era, Jeffries was a physical anomaly. Foreman came along at a time when nutrition was much better and fighters weighed, on average, more than they did in the early 1900's, so his 220 pounds does not impress me nearly as much as Jeffries's rock solid 220 pounds which was also after he had trimmed down, running 10-15 miles every morning which was just the begining of a training program that would put James Toney in the hostpital. To put things in perspective, Foreman claimed he never ran more than 3 miles at a stretch before his second career in the late 80's/early 90's. Jeffries was just a beast and impressed the world's best catch wrestlers of the time, such as Farmer Burns, with his strength and aptitude for grappling. The guy was an exceptional athlete and had the physical gifts to excel in most sports. It's too bad he isn't around now for the UFC and Pride.

[M26]

did you just say muhammad ali belongs in the who's the strongest fighter list? Do you happen to be sniffing highlighters while eating glue under a powerline?

I firmly consider Muhammad Ali among the strongest fighters of all time. Notice, I am saying STRONGEST, not the hardest hitter. Ali was never pushed around by anyone, and could hold his own even when facing George Foreman.

All in all, I would say Foreman is the strongest, but Ali was right up there with him.

[BKM-]

I firmly consider Muhammad Ali among the strongest fighters of all time. Notice, I am saying STRONGEST, not the hardest hitter. Ali was never pushed around by anyone, and could hold his own even when facing George Foreman.

All in all, I would say Foreman is the strongest, but Ali was right up there with him.

Really? I remember something diffirent, Foreman pushing Alis head back all over the ropes and pounding him(And all those other countless times he was pushed in the corner). If he was up there with him he would've been able to hold his own when Foreman wasn't tired.

[Kid Achilles]

I don't remember Ali pushing Foreman around when he was fresh, just holding his head down when he was fatigued. Ali was very strong but he was not in Foreman's league.

[Yogi]

Jeffries was just a beast and impressed the world's best catch wrestlers of the time, such as Farmer Burns, with his strength and aptitude for grappling. The guy was an exceptional athlete and had the physical gifts to excel in most sports. It's too bad he isn't around now for the UFC and Pride.

"I'm just glad Jim sticks to boxing as a profession." - so said the great Frank Gotch (quite possibly the greatest catch-as-catch-can wrestler of all-time and is given that position by a number of sportswriters of the early days...including Nat Fleischer, who was also a big wrestling fan) when asked what he thought of Jeffries' grappling abilities after spending some time on the mat with him

[Kid Achilles]

That's the quote I was looking for, and it says it all. Thanks Yogi. Jeffries was born in the wrong time as I think MMA really would have suited him even better than boxing. Though it's also quite likely Jeffries would still choose boxing today as it's where the big money is.

[JDizzle79]

I say Frank Bruno