Not doubting that at all, although Bolt has one fewer Golds despite only having competed in 3 of the 4 events Lewis competed in. Bolt's world record in the 100 is far beyond anything Lewis accomplished during his entire career. Also, Bolt's aura and global popularity far exceeded Lewis'.
Not doubting that at all, although Bolt has one fewer Golds despite only having competed in 3 of the 4 events Lewis competed in. Bolt's world record in the 100 is far beyond anything Lewis accomplished during his entire career. Also, Bolt's aura and global popularity far exceeded Lewis'.
The athlete/sportsmen divide muds the water a bit.
For greatest athlete for me its:
1) Jim Thorpe
2) Duke Kahanamoku
3) Bo Jackson
4) Deion Sanders
For Greatest Sportsmen:
1) Pele
2) Jessie Owens
3) Jordan
4) Gretzky
For Greatest Skill gamer:
1) Stuey Unger (Poker and Gin Rummy unmatched legend)
2) Gary Kasparov (Chess)
3) The e-sports guy mentioned earlier
For greatest athlete for me its:
1) Jim Thorpe
2) Duke Kahanamoku
3) Bo Jackson
4) Deion Sanders
For Greatest Sportsmen:
1) Pele
2) Jessie Owens
3) Jordan
4) Gretzky
For Greatest Skill gamer:
1) Stuey Unger (Poker and Gin Rummy unmatched legend)
2) Gary Kasparov (Chess)
3) The e-sports guy mentioned earlier
I like the idea of dividing them whether or not they perform some sort of cardio function.
Depends on criteria, really. Ali's greatness isn't down to his performance. There are athletes who were better at their sport than Ali was at boxing. His greatness came down to his impact outside of the boxing ring. I've chosen to base my vote on sporting performance only.
My vote is for Eddy Merckx. I don't think any other athlete comes close him in terms of dominating every area of his sport. Athletes like Karelin dominated Greco-Roman wrestling, but that's a fairly straight-forward sport. In cycling there are specialists for different races, and Merckx routinely kicked the ass of everyone in every type of race.
To put it into perspective:
- He won 11 Grand Tours (three week stage races) in total. 5x Giro d'Italia, 5x Tour de France and 1x Vuelta a España (which he only entered once). That's an all-time record for total Grand Tour wins, Giro wins and Tour wins. Only seven riders in history have all three Grand Tours. Merckx is one of three to win all three consecutively. Those numbers could go down to six and two if Froome is eventually banned for the dodgy test last year.
- He has more stage wins in Grand Tours than any other rider, and still holds the record for total amount of Tour de France stage wins.
- He won all three classifications (overall standing, points and mountains) during a single Tour de France and a single Giro d'Italia. He is the only rider ever to have done this in either race.
- Merckx won all five of the Monuments of cycling (the biggest one day races) at least twice. Only two other riders have won all five throughout history. He also has a total of 19 Monument wins, which is an all-time record. The guy behind him has 11 total wins. He also holds the record for most total wins in two of the Monuments (Milano-Sanremo and Liege-Bastogne-Liege).
- He won the World Championships three times. This is also a record.
- Merckx won a total of 525 races during his career. This is roughly 150 races more than any other rider.
- In 1972 he set an hour record that has only ever been beaten with more aerodynamic equipment or use of blood doping methods that weren't available in Mercxk' day.
He's so far ahead of anyone else in the sport that it's hard to comprehend. When a rider matches just one of the exploits mentioned in the bullet points above he goes down as a cycling legend and all-time great. No single rider has ever matched two.
He was pretty much the best at every type of race in an era that includes several others of the best riders of all time, like Roger de Vlaeminck, Felice Gimondi and Jan Janssen. In terms of leaving a legacy filled with near unbreakable records, I think only Gretzky gets close to him.
Bo Jackson for me
Hall of famer in 2 sports
100m time to qualify for the 1984 100m final if he competed, may have even medalled
Also run up a wall, jumped over a Volkswagen & broke a baseball bat over his head
Just watch the 30 for 30 docu about him
Hall of famer in 2 sports
100m time to qualify for the 1984 100m final if he competed, may have even medalled
Also run up a wall, jumped over a Volkswagen & broke a baseball bat over his head
Just watch the 30 for 30 docu about him
Solid work there, in my opinion.
Not sure if he made the hall of fame in either sport, although he did make both all star teams.
You are aware Ali is the greatest Heavyweight boxer of all-time? By default that puts him as the pinnacle boxer. Boxing can't be directly paired off with other sports that don't have weight classes, but I guess you have a perfect example of the hierarchy with how track and field, running in particular, is viewed. For many, the 100 meter sprint is the premier event, which elevates someone like Bolt even further, same goes for the H/W division in boxing.
I'm not sure there's a Sugar Ray Robinson to a Mohammed Ali equivalent in track and field, but I doubt any runner over a distance other than 100m would be considered over Bolt even if they had the same medal haul.
What?
Cassisus Clay is the most dazzling heavyweight boxer there'll ever be; Mohammed Ali displayed some of the greatest feats of grit and heart seen in televised boxing. He's renowned for what he did in and out of the ring, equally. He couldn't have had the impact outside the ring without what he did in it.
Ali is a legitimate shout surely
Peak Ali before jail was just something else, talent and athletically
Peak Ali before jail was just something else, talent and athletically
Ali is the best heavyweight of all time, but is the best boxer also the best athlete? Was Ali better at boxing than Federer was at tennis or any other athlete was at their particular sport? Not in my opinion.
Ali was a phenomenal athlete and boxer, but would he be revered like he is without his antics and personality? Based purely on sporting performance, there are far more dominant athletes than him in othe sports. It could even be argued that there are better boxers than him in other weight classes.
You said 'Ali's greatness isn't down to his performance' when it's exactly his undeniable talent that gave him the platform to do what he did outside of the ring.
Ali also boxed in the golden era of his division against a veritable who's who of legitimate top 10 HW greats, which made his feats all the more impressive, and as I said in an earlier post, to come back as two completely different incarnations and triumph is the stuff of comics.
And the pre-ban Clay/Ali is and would be about as revered as a heavyweight boxer can be without any of the self-promotion because you simply don't get 6'3" boxers who moved like he did.
I think this 'greatness because of him being larger than life outside of the ring' should not be used as a tool to play down his magnificence inside of the ring.
A better way to word it would be that his greatness isn't solely down to his performance, or that he isn't viewed as the icon that he is just because he was a good boxer.
I definitely agree that Ali was an outstanding athlete and one that deserves a mention in this thread as the greatest boxer ever in the most demanding weight class, but based purely on athletic performance there are others in other sports that have been better, in my opinion.
Paul Scholes
Cheers
Yeah Lewis should be in the conversation. Dominated 3 events and the greatest long jumper of all time IMO with 15 of the 30 longest jumps in history and a 9m+ jump cpntentiously ruled out.
What's this recurring theme of Aaron Rodgers being cited under NFL as greatest? 
Gary Kasparov.
Skeet Reese
From the list, Federer.
But not from the list, Haile Gebrselassie.
But not from the list, Haile Gebrselassie.
Don Bradman
Tom Brady came in at #1 on the NFL network greatest players. Added to the list.
That list is utter bollocks by the way. The voting criteria is shambolic, and it is often based on last year's performance. Brady shouldn't be anywhere near this list. If you needed a representative player from the NFL it's probably Jerry Rice.
I think Brady’s career as a whole puts him in the discussion. I can’t imagine many neutrals disagreeing.
Most Super Bowl appearances, most wins, most MVP, most touchdowns and most passing yards. Holds the same records for the playoffs too.
Superbowl wins are a team stat. He doesn't have the most MVP's, he doesn't have the most TD's, he doesn't have the most passing yards. Where did you get that from?
Conor McGregor
bite
bite
Touchdown passes not TD’s.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.sbn...m-brady-nfl-record-list-most-touchdowns-yards
Went for Federer but Karelin is a great shout imo. His record is bizzare quite frankly. How does one remain so dominant over period of 800+ wrestling matches?
Doesn’t have good enough mic skills, never beat undertaker at wrestlemania.
That article directly refutes most of what you claimed he had achieved?
He has never been found guilty for doping. A team Mate in the 4x100 was said to have had a banned stimulant in his B sample .
All the ones I mentioned were super bowl ones, didn’t see the need to write super bowl every time.
I don't know each individual athlete on the list but Phelps has always been a bit of a hero of mine, his sheer dominance in swimming on the biggest stage is absolutely unbelievable to me.
I was slightly taking the piss as seen in the white text but should we just say decathlon athletes are the best athletes of all time since they can Excell in many sports. Why should we mention any other athletes like the basketball players and tennis. players then. This thread should just be a list of decathlon athletes
Ok now I understand. Still, his Superbowl rate statistics are heavily affected by his coach, roster, and luck. Brady is a very good quarterback so he's taken advantage of it by snagging these records. But better players haven't been given the chance.
Bolt and Federer are my two choices. In their prime, they were beast mode
That’s just luck of the draw unfortunately, and overall achievement has to count for something. The only one on the list who didn’t reach the pinnacle of their sport as an individual or a team is bo Jackson but he has to be in there because his moment in the limelight was as good as anyone in history, he’s just a complete freak.
Obviously this is a very subjective question but I can't honestly think of a popular sport that tests you to the degree boxing does except maybe the decathlon and MMA. Certain sports will test certain aspects to a greater degree, but the whole package...not that I can think of.
The level of mental fortitude required for boxing also seems a world apart from most other sports. In tennis the other fella wants to smash a ball past you at lighning speed, in boxing he wants to beat the shit out of you - that's pretty scary when he's six foot five, built like a barn and with fists like boulders.
No Lebron James ?
In Tennis they can play for 5 hours! the matches swing so much too. Them big pressure points play on the mind too.