It’s a list that pops up every now and then, and boxing fans seem to love it … continue
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. “I am not allowed to work to earn a living in America, and I’m not allowed to leave the country,” Ali said in explaining his hopelessly unjust plight.
It was forty years ago today when massive underdog Leon Spinks upset The Greatest, in defeating Muhammad Ali to take the world heavyweight crown. Spinks, a veritable novice, shocked the world by winning a fifteen-round split decision in Las Vegas. Was Ali finished, for good? It looked like it, but as we know, The Greatest came back and scored one last win – a revenge win over “Neon Leon.”
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.’ Sadly it happened to at least three of the immortal heavyweights featured in the now 30 year old “Champions Forever” video tribute (still a fantastic watch a full three decades on).
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?
The Daily Star has just unearthed a short Tyson interview where the youngest heavyweight ruler in history talks about what would have happened had he met “The Greatest.”
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. As fight fans know, “The Greatest” was stripped of his world title, and prevented from earning a living by boxing, for a little over three and a half years.
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. Joshua feels he’ll be mentioned with those greats when/if he defeats Parker and Wilder.
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.
As convinced as ever that he has the beating of both the reigning WBA/IBF champ along with the current WBC king, Fury has declared, once again, how he will be back. And this time, via his twitter page, Fury has said his return to glory by “taking down” Joshua will be just like the great Muhammad Ali’s return to the crown against George Foreman back in 1974.
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.”
Most fans, in fact virtually all of them, will agree perfectly with Warren; although, shockingly and sadly there are those people who are trying to tell us that AJ, at just 20-0, is already a great fighter – even deserving of being compared with “The Greatest.” Warren spoke on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast show this morning and the promoter explained his feelings on Joshua.
“Not in this lifetime,” heavyweight legend George Foreman on the subject of him fighting Lennox Lewis.
Retired heavyweight legend Lennox Lewis turns 52 today. The last undisputed world heavyweight king holds another fine distinction: that of being a fighter who defeated every opponent he ever faced. Yes, Lewis suffered defeat – by stoppage, at the hands of Oliver McCall in 1994 and to Hasim Rahman in 2001 – but he did what the greats fighters do: come back and get revenge.