On Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:54:20 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:12:10 GMT, Wizard of Woodstock
wrote:

On Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:25:27 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:


"hk" wrote in message
newsMSdnQ38MdNshujUnZ2dnUVZ_vudnZ2d@earthlink .com...


Yeah, Tim, he is. Ali is still the greatest. I closely followed the
heavyweight division since the days of Floyd Patterson until the 1990s,
and there was never ever anyone as good as Ali at his best.


With that we completely agree.

My brother, who is almost 6 years younger than I, often have this debate.
He thinks Ali was a media sports star and not a real fighter. When I
recall the battles he fought and the ultimate athleticism in which he did
it, there is no contest in my mind.

One only has to watch the Ali-Frazier fights to understand that.

Ali was the best HW. But Larry Holmes was pretty close, and given his
title defenses should be a legend himself. Reason he never got much
respect is that birdbrain Howie Cosell was still calling fights, and
given his idolatry of Ali, he ran down Holmes every chance he got.
I haven't even watched a HW fight in years, given the quality now
compared to bygone eras.

Eh - I don't know about that. Homes was certainly a good fighter and
worthy of Hall of Fame inclusion, but you have to remember he spent a
lot of his time in the IBF fighting heavyweight chumps.

In my opinion, the two greatest of our era had to be Ali and Frazier.

For the record, I gave up on professional boxing after Hagler got
hosed in his bout with Ray Leonard - who was a total fraud as a boxer.
I think Hagler, if he had won that fight, would have been recognized
at the greatest professional fighter of all time.

--

"Never fight an inanimate object."

P.J. O'Rourke