Muhammed Ali Over-rated?

[Benny Leonard]

That's fair enough. Nobody was as good as Robinson BUT Heavyweights always get all the ink.

Poet

They should in this regard. Who wins in their Prime: Ali vs. SRR?

[StarshipTrooper]

People still believe that old wives tale? The funny thing is they timed the break in rounds and it wasn't even close to a minute, never mind ten minutes. Is that all you have against ALI? A fabrication?

Pssst. Guys. Manchine is just being a smartass. He's tsking a poke at the idiots in his dry, ironic manner.

Poet

[Ch@mpBox@PR]

One of the most biased posts I've ever seen.



Some would say Norton deserved the nod in all three fights, but they were extremely close and difficult to score, and far from being gift decisions. No extremely close fight can ever be called a robbery. And styles make fights, and Norton just happened to have a style to trouble Ali. Overall Ali was a far better than Norton. And by the third fight, Ali was way past his prime.

Other than the two wins against Norton, there were no other fights he won that most people thought he should have lost.



And stopped Cooper in the very next round. And destroyed Cooper in the rematch. Cooper had a very good left hook if he landed it flush, and Ali took him too lightly in their first fight. In his next fight, he negated the hook and Cooper couldn't land.



After a four year break and only six months into his comeback, against an ATG fighter. And very few fighters would have got up from that punch, and he was up almost immediately.



Outright lie. He coasted against Wepner, won easily, and that so-called knock-down happened when Wepner was standing on Ali's foot while landing a punch on his chest, so that Ali lost his balance. Ali cut both Wepner's eyes and broke his nose before knocking him down, when the fight was stopped.



So what? Bonavena was a very good fighter, and gave Frazier two of his toughest ever fights. Nat Fleischer called Bonevana "The most powerful fighter I've ever seen". And Ali fought him coming off his four year enforced lay-off and gave him his first stoppage defeat. And it was an 8" reach advantage, not 12".

Tunney got

[StarshipTrooper]

They should in this regard. Who wins in their Prime: Ali vs. SRR?

I agree they should but I also acknowledge reality: People will practically always know a mediocre Heavyweight champ but be hard pressed to name an ATG in a lower weightclass.

Poet

[TheGreatA]

Cooper could knock out a lot of people with his left hook.


8:50

[StarshipTrooper]

Tunney got

Tunney ALWAYS gets owned

Poet

[Kid McCoy]

It depends what the rating is. If it's that Ali is the greatest fighter of all time, ie across all weight divisions, then that is overrating him. Their are numerous boxers who deserve to be ahead of him in that regard, imo.

But if the rating is that he's the greatest heavyweight of all-time then that's pretty reasonable, since I'd say that one is a toss up between he and Louis.

[Benny Leonard]

I agree they should but I also acknowledge reality: People will practically always know a mediocre Heavyweight champ but be hard pressed to name an ATG in a lower weightclass.

Poet

Agree...........shame

[Benny Leonard]

It depends what the rating is. If it's that Ali is the greatest fighter of all time, ie across all weight divisions, then that is overrating him. Their are numerous boxers who deserve to be ahead of him in that regard, imo.

But if the rating is that he's the greatest heavyweight of all-time then that's pretty reasonable, since I'd say that one is a toss up between he and Louis.

It's good to see some putting Louis at least near Ali. I put Joe's picture up after I got into a bit of a fight with some people saying he was an overrated fighter and only fought Bums, hence the "Bum of the Month Club." But I like what Tyson said about it:






People that have seen my posts know that Louis is my favorite fighter and I make that clear, but I also acknowledge he could lose to Ali, and I would probably favor Ali...and some others may beat him...but to call him an overrated fighter who only fought bums...come on?
And in a rematch...hard to say Louis loses.

[Dave Rado]

http://coxscorner.tripod.com/20heavyweights.html

THE TOP 20 HEAVYWEIGHTS OF ALL TIME

1. Joe Louis

Good article, and I like the reasons he gives, it's a very balanced assessment:

Joe Louis is the best technician amongst all heavyweight punchers, the most complete fighter amongst all the heavyweight champions, the best in a combination of boxing skill and punching power. His punching accuracy is the best ever seen by a heavyweight on film. He has speed, power, and explosiveness, some of the best combination punching ever in any weight class of any time. Louis was the complete package. He holds the record for longest consecutive title reign at nearly 12 years and the most title defenses with 25, 21 of those are knockouts, 17 are ten counts, and 5 in the first round.

Muhammad Ali beat the highest class of competition in heavyweight history. He had incredible physical gifts, which were his phenomenal speed, a great chin and razor sharp reflexes. Fundamentally he was flawed having never learned the rudiments of boxing. Based on his athletic ability and quality of opposition I have no problem with Ali being # 1, although I prefer Louis for his superior technical skills and punching power.

I also agree with his #3 ranking of Jack Johnson, who I think is the most under-rated heavyweight of all time by most casual fans, who generally confuse entertainment with quality.