Quote Originally Posted by Lyle View Post
Quote Originally Posted by ElTerribleMorales View Post
nobody says that Ali was unbeatable, he retired with 5 losses, Frazier,Norton,Spinks, Holmes, and Berbick.

but no one can deny the fact that he beat a legendary names and did it without the controversy that there is now in boxing

Archie Moore
Henry Cooper (2X)
Sonny Liston (2X)
Floyd Patterson (2X)
George Chuvalo (2X)
Ernie Terrell
Jerry Quarry (2X)
Jimmy Ellis
Buster Mathis
Bob Foster
Ken Norton (2X)
Joe Frazier (2X)
George Foreman
Earnie Shavers
Leon Spinks

tell me one heavy in the last 30 years who has that amount of top talent on his record
So Ali was able to win but he was also blessed with tons of guys to fight. Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano weren't as lucky but 25 successful title defenses and going undefeated speak volumes of greatness.

I really don't rate Ken Norton as all that great of a heavyweight, he was awkward but anytime he was put in with a puncher he got KO'd.

Earnie Shavers wasn't a class heavyweight either, he was just a big puncher, there was nothing else about his game that was amazing.

LEON SPINKS?!?!?! You were arguing FOR Ali being great right

Holyfield and Lewis have very good records and I think they fought top level competition and rarely lost.

neither of them had a 3 year hiatus.


Ali had to relinquish the title only 9 defenses into it, it's not out of the question that in those 3 years of his physical prime that he could have built an even greater heavyweight record. And Ali was also great because most of his biggest victories came after his hiatus and prime.

His win against Foreman was one of his greatest.

Lyle you bring up a point that Ali wasn't so flashy anymore and how Foreman was a monster.

That's the point. What makes that win so great was the fact that Ali wasn't the Ali who fought Cleveland Williams and was way past his prime, and he went in there and he beat the young monster who was undisputed champ George Foreman who knocked out Frazier and used a brilliant strategy to beat him.

The point of that victory was that it wasn't a prime Ali and he beat a Prime George Foreman, not only beat him but he knocked him out. It doesn't matter if it was pretty or not, what matters is that he did it out of his prime and no one game him a chance.