It’s a list that pops up every now and then, and boxing fans seem to love it when the debate begins: who is the greatest heavyweight champion of all-time; who are the top-10 greatest heavyweight champions of all-time?
Go back 50 years, to 1968, and the greatest heavyweight champion boxer in the sport’s long history Muhammad Ali, was barred from boxing; unable to even earn a living.
It was forty years ago today when massive underdog Leon Spinks upset The Greatest, in defeating Muhammad Ali to take the world heavyweight crown.
It’s proven so, so hard for a number of great fighters to exit the sport on a win. So often we’ve seen legends battle on for too long; taking that ‘fight too many.’
It’s more than likely THE ultimate Dream Fight; the mythical match-up that really gets fans talking – and debating. Muhammad Ali, in his prime, against Mike Tyson, at his physical fighting peak: who wins?
Former heavyweight ruler Tyson Fury insists his time out of the ring, his exile if you like, is comparable to the enforced inactivity the great Muhammad Ali had to undergo back in the 1960s.
IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua is ready to put himself in the same class as boxing greats Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson if he can beat champions Deontay Wilder [WBC] and Joseph Parker [WBO] next year.
It’s just talk and will remain as such until he gets his license back, but former and unbeaten heavyweight ruler Tyson Fury is busy calling out not only his rival Brit Anthony Joshua, but also Deontay Wilder.
Top British boxing promoter Frank Warren says that anyone who compares reigning WBA and IBF heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua to the great, the, well, incomparable Muhammad Ali is saying something that is “beyond stupid.”
“Not in this lifetime,” heavyweight legend George Foreman on the subject of him fighting Lennox Lewis.
Retired heavyweight legend Lennox Lewis turns 52 today.