When did champions get to meet Presidents/Royalty etc ?

[The Old LefHook]

Roosevelt squeezed Joe Louis' biceps.

[The Old LefHook]

Greatest heavyweight in MMA history, at least. Some say pound for pound greatest. If he were to go through with his comeback and clean out the heavyweight division in the UFC, there wouldn't be any doubt by anyone he's the best ever.

He is a little old for that hope, isn't he?

[Anthony342]

Yes, hence the term if and not when. I'm not expecting it to happen. But we've seen plenty of boxers with some good, past prime wins. Ad heavyweights go, Fedor is on the Ali/Louis level in MMA.

[The Old LefHook]

Yes, hence the term if and not when. I'm not expecting it to happen. But we've seen plenty of boxers with some good, past prime wins. Ad heavyweights go, Fedor is on the Ali/Louis level in MMA.

Are there murmurings of a comeback? Is he on a comeback now? He was getting my attention when he suddenly got smashed. Didn't he miss a lot of interesting fights over most of his career because of contract stuff? At least he beat the other big Russian who knocked everyone out with single kicks.

[rightsideup]

I doubt that Ali met the president when he was a champion, he was always against the system and he was always exposing the racist white government of the time, plus his refusal to fight in the unjust Vietnam war for the benefit of his oppressors was something that didn't help his popularity with the system and people of power either.
'
Only when he couldn't walk or talk anymore they started calling him a hero and every president wanted to take a pic with him, and that's not cool. Ali was also a gold medalist and a heavyweight champ just like Frazier, yet I doubt it that he got the same treatment Frazier got from the people of power at the time.

ali met president Ford latter in his reign

[rightsideup]

Max Scheling met hitler and was provably disgusted by that as he had many Jewish friends.

[Anthony342]

Are there murmurings of a comeback? Is he on a comeback now? He was getting my attention when he suddenly got smashed. Didn't he miss a lot of interesting fights over most of his career because of contract stuff? At least he beat the other big Russian who knocked everyone out with single kicks.

Nah, he only really missed fights with Couture and Lesnar, but the guy's legacy is cemented with a winning streak that lasted almost 10 years, including wins over the heavyweight Noguiera brother aka Big Nog, former interim champ and 4 former UFC heavyweight champions and that was because he didn't like the way the owners do business, pulling a lot of shady crap making it difficult to compete. One FC and Bellator are more liked by hardcore fans. Pride, where he mostly fought, is the all-time favorite promotion of fans. And you're talking about Mirko "Crocop" Filopovic, whose head kicks were nicknamed "one kick hospital, the other the cemetery" or something like that. He himself is well into a comeback. It's crazy that a lot of the guys that were around in 1993, when the UFC started or a little after that, are still competing. Hell, Ken Shamrock had a fight in June, which most now believe was fixed. Hopefully, it was his last, as he's 51 now. At least Royce Gracie, Frank Shamrock, Dan Severn, Don Frye and Kazushi Sakuraba are finally retired now.