Haye v Klit - Negotiations underway confirms IBF

[rjj tszyu]

Haye-Valuev was everywhere I agree, maybe outside of London it's different, but here Mayweather is bigger certainly with people under 25. He can be big, but football will always be the #1 game in this country and he will never surpass the biggest names there. I love boxing, but football players are our superstars, people might not pay £15 for a normal game, but I bet you'd have in the many millions who'd pay to watch the FA Cup Final, it's just all the biggest football games are actually protected to be on free tv.

So do you think any footballer in history has been more famous than Ali then?? I'm really interested to hear your opinion on this.

You're talking worldwide, but you could actually make a strong argument regarding Maradona. Using Ali as an example doesn't work.

Try this, who's more famous in the UK, Henry Cooper or Bobby Charlton? Lennox Lewis or Gazza?

We're talking UK, not worldwide, Ali was a true phenomena who was representative of more than the sport, hence his slightly inflated position talent-wise in boxing history.

First and foremost he was a boxer, that is what made him famous. He was famous for holding the biggest prize in sport, the HW championship of the world. You are entitled to your own opinion as far as his ability goes although for me he is as good as his reputation.

I know this isn't a great example but Google Muhammad Ali and see how many results you return and then do the same for Maradona. And use the UK version of Google too. I'll bet Ali out does him 5 times over at least.

In 1999 the BBC did a sportsman of the millenium and Ali beat Pele (who was second) and got over ten times as many votes. The HW champ of the world has far more capabilities than a footballer fame wise. I'm not knocking football at all (although i'm not happy with it at the moment, being a Burnley fan ), I love the sport but boxers have the potential to be the most famous sportsmen ever and that is proven.

Also as far as Lennoz and Gazza go i'd say Lennox is ahead of Gazza in fame, both here and worldwide. Charlton was a world class footballer whereas Cooper was brit/euro level boxer so that is not really fair but if you consider him a 3rd tier boxer then consider a 3rd divsion footballer from the 60's then his fame is astronomical in comparison