Who is your pick for best boxer ever?

You can break it down by division if you'd like.

I will withhold my choices except to say that Ali was the best bar none, but several follow close behind.

Mark Gastineau or Ed "Too Tall" Jones.

Boom Boom Mancini was my favorite.

Ali was very good.
as was Sugar Ray Leonard

I think Roberto Durante may have been the greatest.

Remember when you could watch good fights on tv on the big networks, not pay per view?

Rocky Marciano.

Muhammed Ali. End of discussion. And look what it got him: Parkinsons' Disease. IMHO boxing is probably the dumbest sport in the world and it should be banned. After all, the only purpose of the game is to hurt the other boxer (read: human punchbag) so bad he drops down... Pretty dumb if you ask me...:rolleyes:

Yeah.

:lol: I was going to say "Joe Boxer"...

I would however pay good money to see Ali in his prime vs. Tyson in his. He's made such a joke of himself in recent years that people forget there was a time when he could lay any man on Earth flat in less than a minute.

Joe Louis was the greatest heavyweight ever.

He would have wiped the floor with Ali, who lacked a true knockout punch.
Ali had real trouble with hard hitters, like George Frazier.

The only real contender for Louis as greatest is Sugar Ray Robinson.
" In a career that spanned three decades, Sugar Ray Robinson embodied the essence of the sweet science. He was a world welterweight champion and held the middleweight title five times. Robinson combined an athlete's grace and excellent power and was nearly unbeatable in his prime. He is considered by many to be the best fighter in history, pound-for-pound. He earned the nickname Sugar Ray when a newspaper reporter described him as "sweet as sugar."

Among the fellow Hall-of-Famers Robinson beat are Henry Armstrong, Kid Gavilan, Carmen Basilio, Jake LaMotta, Rocky Graziano, Gene Fullmer and Fritzie Zivic. Robinson was so efficient for so long that he won his first Fighter of the Year award in 1942 and his second in 1951."

http://www.ibhof.com/robinson.htm

Ali beat big-punch fighters in his prime, but later people like Norton were able to get to him.

Sugar Ray Robinson was great, but I almost would take Roy Jones Jr. over him. Robinson was a great fighter, I remember hearing a story about him when he was ready to retire: He wouldn't move from his corner because he had no legs under him anymore. So he would stand there and STILL beat people all the while not moving from his corner.

Jones will win the heavyweight crown soon, whenever that corrupted division gives him a shot.

Joe Louis is second on my list of pure heavyweights. Marciano was great, as was Tyson in his prime.

Tyson never beat a good fighter.

Also, how far back do you want to go?

In their day, guys like John L Sullivan and Jim Corbett were great. ;)