Mohammad Ali Or Tiger Woods

[OneeyedJohn]

I've watched every Ali fight, some live in theatres in UK. I predicted that Frazier would beat him in '71 , but to me he was the simply the best athlete I've ever seen.

Tiger Woods is supreme at what he does and after his performance these last two weeks ( win win ) you have to wonder can anyone be better.

Well consider this, at his peak they got Ali to hit a golf ball, and he murdered it a very long way ( mid 70's ).

I am wondering if Tiger can really surpass Ali in pure simple athletic prowess.

Steve Davis ( 6 x snooker world champion ) always said a little luck and not a little natural talent helped.

What do you think sport fans

[sceadugenga]

Sir Donald Bradman. No contest.

[tw25rw]

I've watched every Ali fight, some live in theatres in UK. I predicted that Frazier would beat him in '71 , but to me he was the simply the best athlete I've ever seen.

Tiger Woods is supreme at what he does and after his performance these last two weeks ( win win ) you have to wonder can anyone be better.

Well consider this, at his peak they got Ali to hit a golf ball, and he murdered it a very long way ( mid 70's ).

I am wondering if Tiger can really surpass Ali in pure simple athletic prowess.

Steve Davis ( 6 x snooker world champion ) always said a little luck and not a little natural talent helped.

What do you think sport fans

I would say Ali in that he put his life on the line every fight, against men who were his physical equals or better, and usually came up on top. To me golf is a walking race around a park while knocking a ball around. I know it's more than that and Tiger is very fit, but it's hardly a man to man battle for supremacy.

[Mid]

bigpond.com

next ......................

[PeaceBlondie]

I think Valentino Rossi is better at badminton than Juan M. Fangio was at lawn bowling.

[Netfan]

Ali was a fighter. Tiger plays golf. He plays it well, but Ali in his prime (and even past it) was a once-in-many-lifetimes athlete. He got hit and got up from two of the best left hooks ever- Henry Cooper in their first fight, and then in the 15th against Frazier in the first fight. Watch that punch - its devastating, but Ali jumps up- in the 15th round of a brutal fight. The third Frazier fight in Manila - 14 rounds in a 40 degree ring. And then he goes on to beat Foreman.

Mid, sorry but #46 will be THE MAN until someone else wins 7 championships.....

Edited August 17, 2007 by Netfan

[Mid]

Mid, sorry but #46 will be THE MAN until someone else wins 7 championships.....

there's only the proverbial in it , so hometown boy ...................................

[OneeyedJohn]

Interesting how easily you go off topic, I love bike racing yeah for sure, but I'm talking about supreme athletes who dominate their world.

Muhammad did it. At his peak he was the most well known person in the world.

Tiger is doing it.

I believe that Tiger not only wants to beat J Nicklaus' record of eighteen majors , BUT he wants to do it in his ( JN ) life time.

Valentino Rossi, Barry Bonds are merely a sideshow to the main event.

[Mid]

but I'm talking about supreme athletes who dominate their world

nothing off topic there ...........................

which is kinda the point ,

Ali to Tiger ? well why not Mick ??

[chinthee]

ESPN greatest N. Am. athletes of the 20th century only puts Ali in 3rd, behind 1st Michael Jordan, and Babe Ruth - Gretsky at 5th.

I think Jack Nicklaus would be delighted and honored to witness Tiger tie and break his record. He's said as much already - another class guy.

[draggons]

Don't know if many of you will class climbing, mountaineering as a sport but at the top end you have to be a top athelete.

Jamie Andrew would have definatly been at the top had he not lost both hands and both feet to frostbite. He's since gone on to being the first quadroamputee to run the London marathon, completed an ironman triathalon along with returning to mountaineering, climbing, skiing and many other pursuits.

If you're interested you'll find him in wikipedia.

knowing the man, he is the greatest.

[Mid]

the defence rests .....................

[farang prince]

It is very difficult to compare great athletes from different sports. All are dominant in their sports genre. If you consider all aspects of these athletes, from their dominance of their sport, to their global impact that goes outside athletics, then I think Ali is still the greatest. Tiger Woods is still a young man in a sport that allows its athletes to continue on well after most athletes in other sports have retired. He still has another 20 years to add to his legacy. When he is through, he will be the most dominant athlete of any sport. But I don't think he has the same charisma as Ali...very few athletes ever have. Tiger still values his privacy and he is not by nature an extrovert like Ali was.

[Old Man River]

Obviously and apples and oranges comparison, but if you look at their impacts on their sports you would have to say Ali has changed more about boxing than Tiger has changed golf. Boxing is raw in that, unlike golf, there hasn't been many technological improvements. What has changed in the heavyweight division is styles and Ali was the first heavyweight that brought speed into the ring along with punching power. Since then, so many other heavyweights have copied his style.

[chinthee]

You could make similar arguments about Michael Jordon. Truly great players who played and lost against him like Karl Malone are merely footnotes because of Jordan's greatness. His athleticism and mental toughness and focus are equal to Ali.

[Austhaied]

Sir Donald Bradman. No contest.

Agreed.

Dick Reynolds is the greatest ever Aussie Rules player though.

[JimmyCA]

Ali was an athlete as boxing is a sport

Woods is a hobbyist as golf is a hobby or pastime like snooker, chess or poker. Any fat wad can do these things.

So I choose Ali

[Jersey_UK]

Obviously and apples and oranges comparison, but if you look at their impacts on their sports you would have to say Ali has changed more about boxing than Tiger has changed golf. Boxing is raw in that, unlike golf, there hasn't been many technological improvements. What has changed in the heavyweight division is styles and Ali was the first heavyweight that brought speed into the ring along with punching power. Since then, so many other heavyweights have copied his style.

Ali - I am a bit too young to have really got into his fights, but the sheer force of personality of the man made an impression on a small white kid child living on an island half way accross the world and a whole world away.

Tiger gets paid very well for a Hobby that sells golf clubs. and funny looking jumpers

[sendbaht]

The Oklahoma Sooners....oh, off topic....

I'll go with Tiger......

[calibanjr.]

It would be Ali for me for many reasons mentioned above. Throw in the time in which they had their prime, the turmoil of the time in the U.S. for Ali's race and the whole Vietnam stand he took, and it just shows the depth of his character/psyche. Not denigrating Tiger at all (how could I, really?), he apparently had his travails as well. Just that Ali was the whole phenomenal athletic package with an amazing politico-cultural persona at a really heavy political time.

Edited August 17, 2007 by calibanjr.

[OneeyedJohn]

Well said Calibanjr, with Ali you can use all the superlatives.

Didn't Jordan have a pair of shoes named after him

[ratchabuild]

To me Ali is a living God and the most beautiful human being I ever saw, with the most grace. Makes me believe in God "What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symettry"

[garro]

Which is better?

Being good at swinging a stick or good at punching somebody else in the eye?

Tough choice.

[PeaceBlondie]

We're primarily talking about golf and heavyweight boxing, two minor sports that most educated people throughout the world don't watch. Two individual sports, not team sports. Not to criticize the accomplishments of any great athlete, but a little, old, bald, frail man from India changed the world far more than any athlete ever did. Long after Ali and Woods are known only in sports, it will be admitted that the Christ, the Buddha, and Gandhi changed the world.

[roietjimmy]

Tiger dominates his sport and will likely do so for many years to come. Will someday he be considered greater than Ali remains to be seen but he has a long way to go.

Ali was not only dominant in the ring, he was instrumental in changing the then public perception of professional boxing from a sleazy, barbaric, corrupt sport to a popular, mainstream spectator sport.

His greatness in the ring is only part of what makes him the greatest. As evident in some of his quotes below, Ali's strength of character, insight and humor make him by far the greatest.

"I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own."

"Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up."

"Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill."

"Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything."

"Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong."

"I never thought of losing, but now that it' s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That's my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.

"I'll beat him so bad he'll need a shoehorn to put his hat on."

"It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe."

"It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am."

"It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up."

"My toughest fight was with my first wife."

"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth."

"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer."

"It ain't bragging when you can back it up"

"When you are as great as I am it is hard to be humble."

"I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round.

"I am the greatest of all time"

[farang prince]

Ali was an athlete as boxing is a sport

Woods is a hobbyist as golf is a hobby or pastime like snooker, chess or poker. Any fat wad can do these things.

So I choose Ali

Any fat wad? If you can find some fat on Tiger Woods, let me know. Golf as a hobby? Obviously you have never played the game. Let's see how you do when you have to sink a six-foot putt to win $1 million. Or when you have to thread a drive 290 yards down a narrow fairway on the 18th hole in order to win a championship. Duh!

[marshbags]

You cannot dispute Tigers ability but, the difference in my opinion, rests on the fact tha M.Ali were purely dependant on mental and physical ability.

Tiger needs his golfing equiptment to compliment his.

M.Ali of course has also proved to be a great Champion long after his retirement in his humbling quest to publicise his Parkinsons illness and has become the No.One contender for fighting the cause of all who are effected by this tragic illness.

The greatest for my money has to be M. Ali.

All the other contenders, along with Tiger, fade into the background on this one as to who is " The Greatest "

IMHO

marshbags

Edited August 19, 2007 by marshbags

[farang prince]

We're primarily talking about golf and heavyweight boxing, two minor sports that most educated people throughout the world don't watch. Two individual sports, not team sports. Not to criticize the accomplishments of any great athlete, but a little, old, bald, frail man from India changed the world far more than any athlete ever did. Long after Ali and Woods are known only in sports, it will be admitted that the Christ, the Buddha, and Gandhi changed the world.

PB, unless Christ, Buddha or Gandhi threw a punch, hit a golfball, dribbled a basketball, ran a football, or kicked a soccer ball, I'm afraid they wouldn't be considered for this discussion. But then, this is a Sports, Hobbies and Activities Sub-Forum, isn't it?

[roietjimmy]

We're primarily talking about golf and heavyweight boxing, two minor sports that most educated people throughout the world don't watch. Two individual sports, not team sports. Not to criticize the accomplishments of any great athlete, but a little, old, bald, frail man from India changed the world far more than any athlete ever did. Long after Ali and Woods are known only in sports, it will be admitted that the Christ, the Buddha, and Gandhi changed the world.

PB, unless Christ, Buddha or Gandhi threw a punch, hit a golfball, dribbled a basketball, ran a football, or kicked a soccer ball, I'm afraid they wouldn't be considered for this discussion. But then, this is a Sports, Hobbies and Activities Sub-Forum, isn't it?

PB, Left out Mohammed and Moses. I'm not sure but I understand Moses had a pretty wicked left hook!

[digitele]

The "Greatest"?

Tiger is the best golfer ever and a supreme athlete. He also grew up in better circumstances. Not his fault.

.

Ali had to overcome many more obstables. Poverty, racism not to mention the Vietnam war, which he had a choice to be a boxing coach, sports director thing for the Army like Joe Louis. He didn't take their deal. Talk about guts!

"What did the Vietnamese ever do to me?" etc. The US government made his life hel_l for being right. $hit!

As for boxing, Bruce Lee said he was the best boxer ever. Brue Lee!

"Lightness of the feet - Footwork, movement, counter punching"

Tiger is a great golfer, but he does not compare in the "What did he have to overcome sweepstakes"

Ali was and is a great champion in this life. A highly intelligent self taught and rightous individual.