Where is the Love?

By the way, I don't think a majority of the people on the 'Chair believe he's the greatest athlete ever.

really? Who else competes with him? Thanks to Manny, we now have at least something about him as an article, but I will fill in an actually bio tomorrow

If you are talking about the greatest "athlete", then Ali comes up short. My list would include Michael Jordan, Jim Thorpe, Carl Lewis, Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, etc...
I don't think Ali was even the greatest boxer ever. In his prime, nobody could beat Tyson. Nobody.

Nobody named James Douglas, he was a buster, literally. Beat Tyson IN HIS PRIME

Evander Holyfield? Hell Razor Ruddick had Tyson beaten to a pulp, broke ribs and all... but broke his own wrist and had to bow out

Tyson was good, but Larry Holmes would have destroyed him in his preime, Ali would have just made Tyson look bad. Joe Louis would have destroyed Tyson. Tyson couldn't deal with a boxer with a left jab (See:Buster Douglas). He wasn't a boxer, he was a fighter.

Tyson's career was over the day Cus D'Amato died.

I'd argue that Tyson's prime was over at the Buster Douglas fight. He only fought three more guys before serving his time for rape. His prime was 85-88, when he was fighting 15-20 bouts per year and destroying everyone.
We can agree to disagree.

Am I the only one who doesn't think Ali was the greatest athlete ever? I don't have him in my top 20.

Joe, Tyson was 23 years old when he got BEAT. He is one of the all-time great under achievers in sport.

Ali lost years in his prime as well. Ali won a gold medal, Ali also fought when the heavyweight division was it's toughest (by FAR) and he whupped 'em all. Tyson fought a pile of chumps and over-the-hill has beens. Ali fought a BUNCH of all time greats.

I'm not an Ali fan, but dude was the greatest of all time

Saying Tyson is better than Ali is like saying Nirvana is better than the Beatles.

Sure Nirvana had some hits, you like the songs and were big for a time, but the Beatles transcend time; maybe the songs don't resonate the same today because you're so familiar it was never new to you, but their work was unimaginable at the time, like Ali (and frankly, if not for the Beatles coming first, there could never be a Nirvana)

Nirvana went up against the likes of TLC and Pearl Jam on the charts, the Beatles outsold the likes of Elvis and Motown.

"Tyson's career was over the day Cus D'Amato died." Manny, that's once again, 100% correct...

THe Nirvana comparison is a bit off the wall, I'd say more like Pearl Jam to the Beatles...Some great songs early but then slowly fell off (This is very relative to how you feel about pearl jam, but general audiences did not like much of their stuff post "ten")

Well, the Beatles - Ali thing isn't dead on because the Beatles weren't around that long. But the eras matched up.

I used Nirvana for Tyson because they came onto the scene and disappeared fast just like Tyson. It was off the cuff and if I thought about it some more, I could find a better comparison.

The only sport my Dad ever watched was boxing (His second son who died as an infant was named Clay, as in Cassius), so I saw a LOT of boxing since birth (even got to punch Joe Frazier in the nads when I was a toddler)through the mid 90's.

joebook: Not in the top 20? Wow, that kills my respect for you. I can understand not having him in the top 20, and can agree to dissagree about wether or not he was the greatest boxer ever; but not one of the top 20? Even though ESPN named him as one of the 3 greatest athletes of the 20th century. Manny: Totally agree with you. Same goes for JuTMSY4.

Prophet... you think he was a great athlete? I don't doubt that he was a great fighter, but maybe the word "athlete" means something else to me. I'm looking for guys that would be great at whatever they did. Bo Jackson was the most phenomenal athlete I ever saw live. Better than Jordan. Better than Payton. He was head and shoulders above anyone I saw. He just had it.
I'm just saying that I don't think boxing requires nearly as much athleticism as other sports. Boxers are among the toughest, most well-trained individuals in the world, but they are not world class athletes.

Athlete to me is someone who competes in a sport. Boxing requires a lot more ability than it is given credit for. Look at Tom Zibikowski out of ND. He may not be a great Db, but he is a great athlete. Why? His boxing training works on strength, endurance, and as long as they are not a true Heavy Weight, then they have a lot of speed trading

although, it is just a birthday, it's not like he's news...

+ for the Article, and while it only is his birthday, most big name athlete's birthday's are at least mentioned more than a side note at the end of a different story

or as a red link on this one...

i am in no way a boxing fan, but I respect and admire what he did, and think it is a shame that boxing is totally ignored now

actually 65th is generally a bigger deal than 60

Agreed, CPCP. What do you want them to do, another chronicle of his life just because it's his birthday? That's been done and you can only beat the same thing so many times. Ali was great, but this complaining is all over something that wasn't even really a story.

And it's not like nobody noticed. There are a few articles on ESPN.com about it and it was talked about a bit on Sports Center. That's plenty.

exactly my point... CPCP, again, when Arenas' birthday party gets a slot on sports center, and a story about Kwame brown shoving a cake in some guys face gets more air time than a legend turning 65, something is probably wrong. They don't need to cover everyone's birthday, but when someone so important as Ali turns 65, it deserves something more than a By the way...today was Muhammad Ali's 65th birthday

I couldn't give two craps about boxing. I've never seen a boxing match. But I know who Ali is. It's impossible not to know. I know who he is, I respect what he did. But I don't care enough that he's turned 65 to see a five minute segment on him. He turned 65, they reported it. That's all there was to do. You can only tell the same story so many times.

It doesn't need to be a 5 minnute story, just give it as much air time as they gave Arenas' birthday party...

I found out Ali didn't want to make it a big deal. Also, word is he really isn't doing so well these days. =(

All I would want is for it to get a recgonition more than a by the way on the 11 PM sports center as they transition to the music. It really is sad that he is not doing that great any more =(