Ali fought the best?

[Outwest Exp 355]

pac didn't bring any money to the table and fighting sharmba mitchell for 4 million instead of margarito for 7 was smart because everyone knows 4 is more than 7.

Sharmba Mitchell was a tune up fight for the Zab fight. In 05 those were allowed before the message board/twitter warriors were born.

[M4RK]

Fing joke post. How can fans give a **** about what a fighter earns is beyond me. Real fans just wanna see the best go at it.

Floyd could make 300 mill fighting pac so he needs to fight at least 10 ppl i call that the best duck in history. Lose out on 300M just to duck someone ahaha what a loser.

U a nut for even mentioning floyd in the same phrase as ali. Get reeal ppl!

[daggum]

Sharmba Mitchell was a tune up fight for the Zab fight. In 05 those were allowed before the message board/twitter warriors were born.

but i thought floyd fought whoever brought him the most money? and why did he fight zab after zab lost to a journeyman? margarito was still available then....it would seem like the perfect time to make your biggest payday and fight the #1 guy.

[New England]

Ali 100% would have fought every hard fight today. He was too ego-maniacal not too. He didn't have to then either, and he did. It's not like boxers never ducked back then. It's the entire reason he is the GOAT heavyweight. He beat almost every name over 2 decades.

Look at Wlad today. He could fight bums in Germany and make huge paydays, but he still seeks to fight the best.

while i agree that ali's motivation and floyd's are very different, i will take issue with some of what you're saying. you appear to be implying that the landscape in the 70's and the 60's at HW to allow for fighters being protected. the great part about that era was that everybody fought basically everybody. ali, norton, frazier, foreman, quarry, nobody was really ducking anybody else. the landscape allowed for these fights to happen. the demand was there.

mayweather is afforded the opportunity to handpick opponents much more often than any of the HW of the 70's would. there were very good, and even great fighters to take your place. it happened to ali in '67, when he refused to be drafted into the army. quarry and frazier took his place. mayweather's

ppv buys against pedestrian opponents benefited a good deal from the prospect of a fight with pacquiao. it was such an odd look, and will truly be bizarre if mayweather jr never fights pacquiao. they got away with so much, and made so much extra money, because people expected them to fight.

[bojangles1987]

while i agree that ali's motivation and floyd's are very different, i will take issue with some of what you're saying. you appear to be implying that the landscape in the 70's and the 60's at HW to allow for fighters being protected. the great part about that era was that everybody fought basically everybody. ali, norton, frazier, foreman, quarry, nobody was really ducking anybody else. the landscape allowed for these fights to happen. the demand was there.

mayweather is afforded the opportunity to handpick opponents much more often than any of the HW of the 70's would. there were very good, and even great fighters to take your place. it happened to ali in '67, when he refused to be drafted into the army. quarry and frazier took his place. mayweather's

ppv buys against pedestrian opponents benefited a good deal from the prospect of a fight with pacquiao. it was such an odd look, and will truly be bizarre if mayweather jr never fights pacquiao. they got away with so much, and made so much extra money, because people expected them to fight.

I wasn't trying to imply that fighters could be protected then, just that you can't fall back on, "they had to fight the best to make any money" like the TS is suggesting. Fighters ducked then, too, and Ali could have. That he fought and beat pretty much every HW that mattered over 2 decades isn't because he had to, but because he wanted to.

I can't see someone like Ali doing what Mayweather does, even if he could. He'd take offense to fans calling a rival like Pacquiao the best, and he'd make that fight happen, or at least make Pacquiao run far and fast to avoid it.

[soul_survivor]

I wasn't trying to imply that fighters could be protected then, just that you can't fall back on, "they had to fight the best to make any money" like the TS is suggesting. Fighters ducked then, too, and Ali could have. That he fought and beat pretty much every HW that mattered over 2 decades isn't because he had to, but because he wanted to.

I can't see someone like Ali doing what Mayweather does, even if he could. He'd take offense to fans calling a rival like Pacquiao the best, and he'd make that fight happen, or at least make Pacquiao run far and fast to avoid it.

Bojingles you chat so much **** so often I almost choked reading this. I agree with you jingly, Ali could have avoided the top guys, heck Frazier could have avoided Ali too for at least another year but the two men fought because they both believed they were the best. After Foreman re-defined the term "annihilation" against Frazier and Norton, Ali could have fought any of the top 10 guys for decent money and waited to see what steps Foreman would take next yet he went straight for the championship shot.

That was an age of men, warriors.

[The Big Dunn]

Bojingles you chat so much **** so often I almost choked reading this. I agree with you jingly, Ali could have avoided the top guys, heck Frazier could have avoided Ali too for at least another year but the two men fought because they both believed they were the best. After Foreman re-defined the term "annihilation" against Frazier and Norton, Ali could have fought any of the top 10 guys for decent money and waited to see what steps Foreman would take next yet he went straight for the championship shot.

That was an age of men, warriors.

That was also the age where the best fighters in the biggest fights earned the most money.

Nowadays floyd and manny fight no names and earn anywhere from $8-30 mil more than the HWT champions biggest payday.

This follows an era where mike tyson could fight peter mcneely and sell 10 times as many ppvs as chavez v sweet pea.

We are, for better and worse, in an era where stars get paid to showcase their skills moreso than fight the best.

Also, fans don't penalize fighters for not fighting the best. Ali had no choice. Leonard, Robinson, Duran, Hagler had no choice.

That ain't the case today.

[KingTito]

This should be fun.

[Jsmooth9876]

He said Floyd never fought a #1 welterweight...and clearly he did..twice! He beat Judah, the previous #1 and everyone claimed he was ducking Baldomir. He then fight Baldomir and then of course he now claimed to to be a tin can. When he came back he fought the consensus #1 ranked welterweight in Mosley. Hate Floyd as much as you want, but the guy fights the top guy in the division the majority of the time.

Pac was #2 at the time, but he was what.. 3 divisions below what Floyd was when he retired? Your point makes no sense. You can't put all the blame on Floyd for the fight not happening, there is blame on both sides.

He fought a 37? Year olds shot Mosely coming off a 16 month layoff. Meanwhile, Cotto,Margarito,and Williams were in their prime with 2 of them undefeated. Then he fights a 140 lb Hatton , a shot Oscar, comes back and fights a guy from 135 in Marquez. He ducked the whole division with 3 prime really good fighters.

[Jsmooth9876]

In 2007 Floyd went up and fought ODH at 154 then fought Hatton, the #1 JWW moving up at ww.

In 2007:

Cotto fought urkal, shane and Zab
shane fought collazo and cotto
margs fought pwill and golden Johnson
pwill fought margs

Yeah Dunn, I know, he goes for the money fights, not the toughest competition. That's been known since he moved up to 147.