By Lou Block
Some so called hardcore boxing fans will always put the olden time fighters above the current fighters to discredit fighters like Floyd Mayweather as an all time great. I can understand if they got a problem with the media hyped Manny Pacquiao because he ain’t done anything to be in the top 50 all time greats, Manny Pacquiao fights cherry picked opponents, but Floyd is undefeated and proven himself time and time again with his amazing boxing skills against the best opposition put in front of him.
They consider it blasphemous to include Floyd Mayweather’s name alongside Muhammad Ali or even to suggest he can beat Sugar Ray Robinson.
Let us get this straight, Floyd has proven himself against top fighters if there is anyone in boxing today that is not deserving of All Time Great status it’s Manny Pacquiao, he hasn’t fought anyone in decent shape and all of them are coming off losses or at the end of their career. What Bob Arum said on 60 Minutes was more insulting to Muhammad Ali when he said Manny Pacquiao was greater than Muhammad Ali and Ali was a one handed fighter.
Ali was the greatest Heavyweight boxer of all time, but the reason he is so famous is because of what he stood for during the civil rights movement of the 60’s.
Muhammad Ali was a man who stood up against racial discrimination and became a political icon as well as a worldly sports figure because of his outspoken protest against the war in Vietnam.
Some of these young boxing guys like to consider themselves boxing historians but are usually under 30 years old and weren’t alive to watch a prime Ali.
Now the thing a lot of Mayweather haters like to say is Floyd fought handpicked fighters and bring up his first fight with Jose Luis Castillo saying it was a gift decision that he should have lost, forgetting that Mayweather beat Castillo in a rematch to shut his critics up.
Well, Muhammad Ali beat up on a nearly 50 year old Archie Moore early in his career, and had two questionable fights with Sonny Liston, both fights people believed were fixed fights with Liston’s close ties to the mob. Liston was a huge favorite to beat Ali the first time and betters who bet on Ali made big money, In the second fight if you bet on Ali to beat Liston by first round knockout you would have won huge again. Ali knocked Liston out in the first round with what many today called the Phantom punch.
Right before Ali fought Liston for the world heavyweight title, he was practically knocked out by Henry Cooper in the 4th round, but Angelo Dundee cut his gloves to give him time to recover and the next round Ali stopped Cooper on cuts. This is something similar to how Andre Berto was knocked down hard by some Mexican journeyman name Cosme Rivera on ESPN Friday Night Fights but his corner cut his gloves to give him time to recover protecting his undefeated record.
Let’s not forget this Muhammad Ali loss to Joe Frazier in their first fight. And people who say Mayweather only fights guys at the right time, how about Ali fighting Joe Frazier after he was devastatingly beat down by George Foreman? Should we discredit Ali’s win over Frazier because he was coming off a KO loss? How come people like to bring up the Jose Luis Castillo fight all the time saying that Floyd struggled with Castillo and many of the Mayweather haters (usually Manny Pacquiao fans) say he lost the fight, but they never mention that Mayweather gave Castillo a rematch and beat him convincingly. Let’s not forget Ken Norton giving Ali some tough fights that people felt Norton won but Ali got a gift. Norton’s style just gave Ali fits but no one discredits Ali because of it.
Many boxing fan’s feel Muhammad Ali’s greatest win was against an undefeated George Foreman. Just like Floyd Mayweather’s greatest win is against the intimidating power puncher Diego “Chico” Corrales, Floyd beat the undefeated Corrales and shut his critics up by stopping the power puncher and giving him his first loss.
I am not saying Mayweather is above Ali just giving a comparison of why it’s ridiculous to discredit a current fighter like Floyd when you can use the same type of logic used to discredit Mayweather’s career with some of Ali’s career.
Oh yeah, Muhammad Ali’s birthday is today January 17th, happy birthday champ.
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