I do not consider him the best fighter or heavyweight ever.
He was very good, and fought all the contenders unlike Patterson who ducked anyone that he thought might beat him, until forced to fight Liston.
He did lots of things outside boxing which is what made him popular around the world.
He is the greatest and the best ever with the possible exception of Sugar Ray Robinson, and if he continues winning and manages to break Marciano's 49-0 record, Floyd Mayweather.
Ali together with Robinson are the only boxers I know with their ideal physique, the talent, the skill, the intelligence, moral and mental courage who could have emerged in any of the boxing division from the flyweights to the heavyweights and still emerged as the best champion and fighter.
As for why is Ali great, there are lots of sources to get information from. There are lots of books, films and other documentary materials about this great boxer and man who has been extolled as a pride of the human race. For starters, you may read about his lengthy resume in the Wikipedia and look at his fight clips in the youtube.
Everyones opinion is different. If you want experts opinions look at ESPN all time great list; http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/...
Or look at the more complete International Boxing Research Organizations top 10 list; http://www.ibroresearch.com/?cat=9
As heavyweights, many boxing experts believe the best ever is between Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis. The best p4p ever is between Sugar Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong or Harry Greb [they all fought monstrous opposition and were universally recognized champions].
There are many great champions who were/are undefeated, including; Rocky Marciano, Joe Calzaghe, Floyd Mayweather, Young Mitchell, Jack McAuliffe, Jimmy Barry, Laszlo Papp, Terry Marsh, Ji Won Kim, Ricardo Lopez and Sven Ottke among many others.
They were all accused of dodging with Marciano being the only exception.
Muhammad Ali is considered great because for a heavyweight he had amazing reflexes, he dominated his era, he fought monstrous opposition and outside the ring he did many controversial and big things;
You have to compare what Ali did to what every else has done and in my eyes as much as I love thus era its not even close Ali was the most athletic heavy weight if all time what he did in that ring was art much like Floyd but with bigger and stronger fighters and lets not forget that the competition in the heavy weight division was a lot tougher back then so to me Ali was a special fighter in and out of the ring.
Ali or Sugar Ray Robinson.
Best Heavyweight? Yes.
Best of all time? No.
I'd give the best of all time to Sugar Ray Robinson
Floyd Mayweather is. I love Ali.
He is the greatest of all time. He is not the best.of all time. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is better than him. Sugar Ray Robinson was better than him.
HELL NAW ITS ME OR BIG BRO
Is he the best ever? What was so great about him
