Muhammad Ali:"When I quit boxing, the game died."

[Left Hook Tua]

no will give him **** cause he's was well into his retirement when he made those comments.....in my opinion i think he is wrong. he's an icon that has parkinson's and people won't go hard on him because of that.

he said "when i left boxing died UNTIL tyson"

boxing did go down when ali left (even more appropriate if he just meant the heavyweight division)

[check hook]

why?

it's kinda true.

i agree.....but when a certain fighter at welterweight claimed something similar.......fans were up in arms...........

[NChristo]

The HW division sort of died after he left because we were stuck with Holmes', wasn't Holmes' fault obviously he was a superb boxer but everyone wanted the charismatic, witty, smart Ali back but instead we got the dull Holmes' who destroyed an old Ali.

Got to say no one really liked the HW division like they did in the past all that much for awhile when he stopped, that's until Tyson came anyway.

[Left Hook Tua]

i agree.....but when a certain fighter at welterweight claimed something similar.......fans were up in arms...........

1. floyd is not loved like ali is. you get away with **** more if the majority likes you more.

2. when ali said it it was years after retirement. (that clip when he said is from champions forever. i remember watching that around 89-90 or something when i was still in junior high) he made an observation after he saw boxing go down a bit after his retirement.

floyd said it as a prediction. as a fact for the future.



there's a difference between ali saying "look at how boxing popularity went down after i retired" to floyd saying "boxing popularity will go down when i retire."

[Left Hook Tua]

The HW division sort of died after he left because we were stuck with Holmes', wasn't Holmes' fault obviously he was a superb boxer but everyone wanted the charismatic, witty, smart Ali back but instead we got the dull Holmes' who destroyed an old Ali.

Got to say no one really liked the HW division like they did in the past all that much for awhile when he stopped, that's until Tyson came anyway.

that's what ali basically said. he said "UNTIL tyson"

obviously he didn't mean boxing died literally.

[CarlosG815]

I love watching Ali outside of the ring. He was the greatest character in boxing history outside of the ring.

[qwerty07]

yeah it's from a clip of CHAMPIONS FOREVER.

great video btw for those who haven't seen it.

it profiles ali , frazier , foreman , holmes and norton , starting from when ali was in the amateurs to when holmes beat ali. (the beginning intro starts with tyson koing holmes too)


ali didn't mean that boxing really died.

he was just trying to make a point that after him and before tyson it wasn't where it was in his prime. (i can kinda agree with that. remember middleweights/welters only take center stage when the heavies are down and when the heavies are down , boxing is down.)

I can't agree with that. I think which ever division has the biggest names in boxing atm will be the division that's focused upon. Pac/May are the two biggest fighters in the world, they also both HAPPEN to be fighting in the same weight class. That just compounds the interest in the welterweight division even more. Now, not only do you got people analyzing Pac/May, but they're also matching up those 2 guys with all the other top 10 welters, etc which blows up everyone's name in the division.

[SNVDoublePunch!]

You can't overestimate Ali's opinion of himself.

[Left Hook Tua]

I can't agree with that. I think which ever division has the biggest names in boxing atm will be the division that's focused upon. Pac/May are the two biggest fighters in the world, they also both HAPPEN to be fighting in the same weight class. That just compounds the interest in the welterweight division even more. Now, not only do you got people analyzing Pac/May, but they're also matching up those 2 guys with all the other top 10 welters, etc which blows up everyone's name in the division.

the biggest names in boxing throughout history has usually been in the heavyweight division.

after that is middleweight and then welterweight. (which is always tied together because the best welterweights usually end up fighting at middleweight)

there are exception but that's been the general rule in boxing.

when the heavyweight division is up , boxing is up.

when the heavyweight division is down , boxing is down even when great middles and welters are around.


just because pacquiao and mayweather are doing well along with delahoya before them doesn't mean that's always gonna be the case.

the sports biggest stars and draws have usually been the heavyweights up until recently.