Muhammad Ali is widely considered to be the greatest heavyweight to have ever laced up the gloves.
Known more commonly by his moniker ‘The Greatest’, Ali entered the paid ranks during the early 1960s after he walked away from the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome with a Light-Heavyweight Gold Medal.
He would go on to capture the world heavyweight championship on three separate occasions throughout the course of his storied professional career, racking up victories over the likes of Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and Sonny Liston along the way.
Perhaps the most famous and iconic victory of his tenure came in October of 1974 when he sensationally knocked out George Foreman in the eighth round of their showdown that was dubbed ‘The Rumble In The Jungle’.
Despite going up against an abundance of legendary heavyweights during his career, and possessing an unwavering confidence to beat any man, Ali once revealed the fighter in boxing history that he believes he would have struggled against.
In an interview with ESPN, Ali admitted that he believed the legendary Rocky Marciano would have given him ‘trouble’ had the iconic duo locked horns, paying homage to the relentless fighting style of ‘The Brockton Blockbuster’.
“The toughest fight would be the man who is the hardest to knockout … a fellow who had no style just a bull, Rocky Marciano … he would be the most trouble I think.”
In another resurfaced interview, Ali said:
“Rocky wasn’t a great fighter scientifically, just a mauler and a brawler. One fight his nose is hanging off him, and he kept coming. Can’t put him down. Can’t teach people to fight like Marciano. He just had his own style.
“He wasn’t as great as me, wasn’t as beautiful, but I don’t know that I would’ve beaten him like that.”
Marciano reigned as the world heavyweight champion for four years between 1952 and 1956, racking up a number of impressive victories over the likes of Ezzard Charles, Jersey Joe Walcott and Archie Moore before he eventually drew the curtain on his career without suffering a single defeat, producing a famous record of 49-0.
