Boxing will never be as popular as it once was because all the big fights are on pay-per-view and pay channels. If they still had the biggest fights for free on network TV it would be much more popular than it is now. They also need to stop charging $50-$60 for each pay-per-view card. I watch all boxing and MMA pay-per-views for free with Sopcast.
“Muhammad Ali was one of the best heavyweights of all time but he’s also the most overrated athlete of all time.”
So true. He had an outsized personality, but when you look close enough, he wasn’t as dominant as they’d have you believe. He clearly lost to Frazier in ‘71. He came within seconds of losing in Manilla, when he asked for his gloves to be cut off. Luckily, Frazier’s corner called the fight first. When you watch the footage, Ali literally collapses after the forfeit is announced. And you can’t fake that sort of thing. It was real.
Not that Ali didn’t win. Damn close, that’s all I’m saying. Same thing with the “Rumble in the Jungle”. No other fight bolsters his legendary status like this one, but it was based on fortuitous timing, in my opinion. He unloaded on Foreman at just the right time, then Foreman screwed up the count. That’s big George’s fault, I realize. I’m not gonna say it was a fast count or anything. But it is obvious from the footage that Foreman was biding his time on the mat, and that he got at the most a milisecond after the ref says “nine.”
People say George never would have recovered. We’ll never know. Also, there was never a rematch. What if Frazier had never given Ali a rematch?
The point is Ali bested Frazier and Foreman by the narrowest of margins.
Not that he wasn’t the greatest boxer of all time. He could very well be, but it’s impossible to tell. It all depends on who’s fighting at what time, and how fighters match up. Rocky Marciano never lost, which is something Ali can’t say. Then again Marciano’s opponents weren’t as good as Frazier and Foreman. Then again again, it can be argued that Frazier at least, and possibly Foreman, were as good as Ali.