Legendary Trainer Emanuel Steward Said Only One Fighter In History Was Better Than Muhammad Ali

The late-great Emanuel Steward once claimed there was just one fighter who was even better than ‘The Greatest’, Muhammad Ali.

In the eyes of millions, Ali is often regarded as being one of, if not the greatest fighter to have ever laced up the gloves.

After capturing an Olympic Gold Medal at the 1960 Games in Rome, Ali would embark on an astonishing professional boxing career which saw him change the landscape of the sport on more than one occasion.

He won the world heavyweight championship for the very first time in 1964 when he defeated the legendary Sonny Liston in the sixth round of their bout in Miami, Florida.

Ali would go on to defeat an abundance of all-time-great heavyweights in the years that followed, including Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and ‘Big’ George Foreman, who he faced in ‘The Rumble In The Jungle’ back in 1974, one of boxing’s most memorable moments.

Despite the outstanding success of ‘The Greatest’, Emanuel Steward once revealedSugar Ray Robinson as the greatest fighter of all time in his opinion, ranking the six-time world champion ahead of Ali in his list.

“Sugar Ray Robinson [number one]. The best welterweight ever! A Phenomenal record at a time when records were real!”

During his 25-year professional career, which spanned between 1940 and 1965, Robinson would fight on over 200 occasions. He reigned as the world welterweight champion between 1946 and 1951 before he eventually made the move up to middleweight, winning the title at 160lbs on no less than five occasions in a nine year period before his eventual retirement.

After a courageous battle with with Alzheimer’s disease, Robinson passed away at 67-years-old in 1989, although his incredible legacy lives on to this very day.