A legend of the heavyweight division has claimed he deserves to be ranked higher than the late, great Muhammad Ali.
Known simply as ‘The Greatest’, Ali had an outstanding professional career which began back in the 1960s after he captured an Olympic Gold Medal following his performance at the 1960 Games in Rome, Italy.
Ali captured the world heavyweight championship for the first time in February of 1964 when he stopped countryman Sonny Liston in the sixth round of their memorable encounter at the Convention Centre in Miami.
‘The Greatest’ would go on to become a holder of the heavyweight championship on a further two occasions during his tenure, producing wins over the likes of Ken Norton, Joe Frazier and George Foreman.
Despite his success and the way he became such an icon throughout his career, there is one former world heavyweight champion in particular who once claimed he is actually the greatest ever.
In an interview with Seconds Out, Evander Holyfield played down the credentials of Ali as he claims he deserves to be considered the greatest heavyweight in boxing history.
“I’m the only four-time heavyweight champion of the world but they are still talking about Ali when I broke his record. I’ve been the only four-time heavyweight champion of the world for 24 years.
“You can’t talk about it until you break someone’s record, they don’t say nothing about me. How do you cut somebody out of history? Now I didn’t even know I was the first person to be undisputed in two weight divisions, until Usyk did it.
“They keep saying Ali is the best fighter, no I am. He was three times, I’m four.”
‘The Real Deal’ remains one of two fighters in boxing history to win the undisputed world championship at both cruiserweight and heavyweight, a record that remained unbroken until May of 2024 when Oleksandr Usyk conquered Tyson Fury in their historic showdown.
