Quote Originally Posted by WelshDevilRob
I stand by my comment that those fighters are some of the best Heavyweights that have ever lived. I'm not going to say that only fighters that are in a Top 20 or 30 are the only ones who can be considered as some of the best in history - I'm not narrowminded enough to keep to 20 fighters when tens of thousands have competed.

Folley was a magnificant technical boxer and Ali probably fought the best he has ever done against Cleveland Williams. Watch that fight (Williams) and if you still have the same opinion then so be it. Ali punished brutally both Terrell and Paterson for constantly calling him "Cassius Clay".

Riddick Bowe - he wasn't quick enough or powerful enough to beat Ali and it would have been very onesided.

As for Cooper - Ali beat him twice in the 60's and Yes Cooper dropped him but he got up and prevailed - that fight is one of the most misremembered in History and people often overexagerate the length of time Ali had to recover. The punch did indeed land just before bell - that's not Ali's fault.

Ali never got knocked-out in his career and was only stopped once on his feet when he was already damaged and shouldn't have been in the ring against Holmes, who tried to mightly hard KO Ali in the 1st- that says to anyone that he could take a punch.
I stand by my comment that those fighters are some of the best Heavyweights that have ever lived. I'm not going to say that only fighters that are in a Top 20 or 30 are the only ones who can be considered as some of the best in history - I'm not narrowminded enough to keep to 20 fighters when tens of thousands have competed.

But they aren't some of the best in Heavyweight history not even close. I could even name 40 if i wanted the point is that to be considered *great* Heavyweight you at least need to be top 20 of all time, plus beating good opposition most of the fighters you mentioned only had 1 or 2 goodish wins in there whole career and they were beaten by the elite Heavyweight's, those fighters would struggle to make top 40 let alone top 20 and i have never heard anyone consider the likes of Terrell and Chuvalo as great Heavyweights.

i'm not narrowminded enough to keep to 20 fighters when tens of thousands have competed.

Why do you have to keep having digs at me all the time ?? why can't you debate sensibly without insulting people and having digs at people ?? no one considers those fighters to be *greats* so your telling me you consider. Terrell, Chuvalo, Jones, etc to be one of the greats of Heavyweight division ??

Folley was a magnificant technical boxer and Ali probably fought the best he has ever done against Cleveland Williams. Watch that fight (Williams) and if you still have the same opinion then so be it. Ali punished brutally both Terrell and Paterson for constantly calling him "Cassius Clay".

They were goodish fighters nothing more, nothing less. Ali did beat Williams in fine fashion i never denied that but Williams was 33 at the time and was past his peak. Just look at my previous posts i have gave you the facts about each of the opponents.

Riddick Bowe - he wasn't quick enough or powerful enough to beat Ali and it would have been very onesided.

Was Doug Jones quick or powerful ?? and to say Bowe isn't powerful enough is ridiculous Bowe is 235. 6,5 in his prime and he did hit pretty hard, and considering Bowe is bigger than Ali, in fact it would be the biggest opponent Ali has faced your not going to sit there with a straight face and tell me Bowe's power would have no effect on Ali are you ?? when Ali got knocked down by a Cruiserweight like Henry Cooper.

As for Cooper - Ali beat him twice in the 60's and Yes Cooper dropped him but he got up and prevailed - that fight is one of the most misremembered in History and people often overexagerate the length of time Ali had to recover. The punch did indeed land just before bell - that's not Ali's fault.

It doesn't change the fact that Ali had to have smelling salts plus his glove split to help him recover.