Greater accomplishment in boxing, Foreman, Ali, Marciano, Tyson

[TheEvilSaint]

1. Ali: beating the draft, a layoff, and another giant puts him at the top.

2. Foreman: His comeback was impressive, but Foreman wanted the money, not the greatness.

3: Marciano: Sven The Stealer Ottke retired undefeated, and he ******. this is not the case with rocky, but it goes to show that streaks and undefeated records aren't special anymore.

4: Tyson: Winng the title at 20 was a great feat, but not THAT great.

[hemichromis]

i think alis was a biggger feat because he came back and after foreman had beaten the champ and the number 1 contender within 2 rounds he beat foreman, that made him a hero

foreman is a close second

[K-DOGG]

It was close between Ali and Foreman; but I had to go with Muhammad because he wasn't facing a chinny former Light-Heavyweight when he regained the title the first time, he was facing a young, fierce, monster who had destroyed both Frazier and Norton, the two men who had beaten him and given him such trouble.

Foreman's accomplishment was great, no doubt; but it was against Michael Moorer, not Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, nor even Evander Holyfield.

[Left2body]

I think another critieria for juding this would be:

Which feat would most easily or likely be duplicated.

1) Rocky retiring 49-0
Can anyone really doubt that if (Ali, Foreman, Holmes, Frazier, Louis, Lewis or even a Bowe or Evander) were an up and comer in the last 3 years in the HW division that they wouldn't retire undefeated?

In the HW division you can have 20-30 fights before you actually even fight someone remotely dangerous. Then 5-6 fights versus other contenders. 1 more fight for an alpha bet belt. 3-4 fights to unify the belts mixed in with 3-4 so so fighters. All he has to do then is fight a decent contender every other fight for 5-6 more fights and retire.

2) Ali coming back after everything and changing his style and still compete with some of the HW greats. Could Byrd change into a boxer puncher instead of a slick boxer? Could Peter change his stripes and become a slick boxer puncher instead of a slugger. Could the Vlad change into a phone booth slugger?

Only person who comes close is JT and he has the skill of an Ali but not the physical talent at HW that Ali possessed.

3) A HW coming back after 10years of retirment and winning the championship belt at his age.

With the depleted HW division and the considerably longer shelf life of HW's as opposed to lighter divisions I could see Lewis coming back in a few years and winning back a belt if he so chose to.

4) A HW winning the belt at a young 20years old.

This is tough to quantify since the HW division is usually a much older division than others in boxing since the body usually needs to fully develope and fill out to compete against todays bohemiths. However a truly talented, exciting and marketable HW *Especially if he was American would probably get a very quick title shot against a fringe champion and could possibly win a belt.

[DarkSpyder]

I'd say Marciano closely followed by Ali. Marciano not just for remaining undefeated, but also for having the strength of will to stay away from the ring when it seems impossible for almost every other boxer at the end of their career.