Heavyweight Legend Says He Is The True Greatest Of All Time: “Muhammad Ali Couldn’t Beat Me”

Best known as ‘The Greatest’, Ali is often commended for being the greatest fighter to have ever laced the gloves up.

His exceptional professional career lasted just over two decades, where he captured the world heavyweight championship on three separate occasions.

Perhaps the most famous victory of his tenure came in 1974 when he defeated ‘Big’ George Foreman in what is best known as ‘The Rumble In The Jungle’. Using his infamous ‘rope-a-dope’ style, Ali wore Foreman down for the opening eight rounds of the contest to eventually stop and dethrone him in Kinshasa, Zaire.

It wasn’t all straight forward for Ali however, after he lost a handful of bouts throughout his career. One of those losses came at the hands as Larry Holmes, who is also regarded as being one of the greatest heavyweights ever.

In a resurfaced interview, Holmes was asked where he believes he ranks in the history of boxing’s all-time-great heavyweights – and he puts himself right at the top.

“Number 1. One of the reasons why is because I love me, and I’m gonna tell you exactly how I feel about me. There’s a lot of room to put me as one of the top great heavyweights and I really don’t care about that, I don’t get into that but if you ask me I’m gonna say I’m number one. Ali couldn’t beat me, he didn’t have the jab that I had. The only man to stop Ali so I would have to put myself at the top. I was superior to all the top fighters, including Muhammad Ali.”

Holmes rose to stardom during the 1970’s, where he reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1978 up until 1985. He picked up a number of career defining victories during this time, including wins against Ali himself, Tim Witherspoon and Trevor Berbick.

‘The Easton Assassin’ drew the curtain on his career in 2002 after he defeated Eric ‘Butterbean’ Esch in his 75th and final bout, walking away from the sport as undoubtedly one of the greatest heavyweights in the history of boxing.