It was years ago on Arsenio Hall’s television show that he had as his guests former heavyweight champion and Olympic champion Mohammed Ali, world champion “Iron” Mike Tyson, and former two-division world champion and 1976 Olympic champion “Sugar” Ray Leonard.
Hall asked Tyson if he was the greatest after Ali had said Tyson had the power to knock him out, but he had the hand and foot speed to defeat him.
Nat Fleischer, who ran Ring Magazine years ago before his death, claimed Jack Johnson, 53-11-8 with 33 stoppages, was the greatest heavyweight he had seen. This may or may not have been before Ali became champion.
Before Ali, most fans felt Joe ‘The Brown’ Bomber Louis, 66-3 with 52 stoppages, was considered the best heavyweight of all time, primarily due to having twenty-five title defenses.
Others felt it was Rocky Marciano whose record was 49-0 with 43 stoppages. It took him into his forty-third fight to get a title shot against then-champion “Jersey” Joe Walcott, 49-20-1 with 21 stoppages. Behind late in the fight, Marciano hit Walcott with a powerful punch so hard that Walcott’s face was distorted.
In Walcott’s dressing room, fellow boxer from Marciano’s camp, Hank Cisco, from Norristown, Pennsylvania, was there and heard the ring physician say, “This man has a broken bone under his eye and should never fight again. If he does, the first hard blow will knock him out!” The mobster Blinky Palermo influenced Walcott and put him into the rematch, knowing the possibility that betting fans felt Walcott would possibly win the rematch due to a “lucky” Marciano punch. The result was a first-round knockout win for Marciano, and surely Palermo had his money on Marciano.
In Marciano at 37-0, stopped Louis in his final fight who was well past his prime. Rumors were that Marciano cried afterwards, having defeated “his hero.”
Over the years, some have referred to former Olympic and world champion Lennox “The Lion” Lewis, 41-2-1 with 32 stoppages, especially those from the UK, as the greatest. Another former Olympic and world champion, “Big” George Foreman, 76-5 with 68 stoppages, once stated that Lewis would be a formidable opponent.
Lewis had stopped Tyson at 49-3, who was past his prime in 2002. Lewis was behind (58-56 on all cards) on points in what would be his final fight against former WBO champion Vitali “Dr. Ironfist” Klitschko, 45-2 with 41 stoppages, whom he stopped after round six on a nasty cut with the WBC and IBO titles on the line in 2003.