NO. 1 MUHAMMAD ALI
Record: 56-5 (37 KOS)
Years active: 1960-67; 70-71
Title reigns: Three (1964-69; ’74-78; ’78-79)
Among his victims: Archie Moore, Henry Cooper (twice), Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston (twice), Cleveland Williams, Zora Folley, Jerry Quarry (twice), Joe Frazier (twice), Ken Norton (twice), George Foreman, Ron Lyle, Earnie Shavers, Leon Spinks
Background: Ali called himself “The Greatest” in part because it sounded good but he also believed it. And, in time, so did everyone else. His unparalleled career was divided into two parts. In the first, the good sized but lithe and remarkably quick Cassius Clay-turned-Muhammad Ali did things no heavyweight has done before or since. He moved liked a particularly graceful middleweight. In retrospect, it should’ve been no surprise that he dominated his smaller or more lumbering opponents of the 1960s. That includes his stunning upset of Sonny Liston in their first fight, when he won the heavyweight championship and “shook up the world.” In the second part, after his hiatus for refusing induction into the armed services, he relied more on guile and his underappreciated toughness to regain his place as the king of boxing. His knockout of the then-unbeaten George Foreman in Zaire is one of the most dramatic moments in boxing history. Both of versions of Ali were superb; and together, they arguably made him the greatest heavyweight of all time.
The next five (in alphabetical order): Riddick Bowe, Tyson Fury, Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir Klitschko and Ken Norton
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