Muhammad Ali the G.O.A.T Athlete

As I watched Micheal Jordan's "The Last Dance" where sports pundits gobbled the content and squeezed it for all its worth - mainly because there's no sports in this time of pandemic. The 'greatest of all time" conversation once and will always come into question. I personally believe the Jordan is the GOAT in basketball even if Lebron James eventually (big IF) surpasses all his accolades. Here's just some of my reasons why I think he is the GOAT:

- one team built around him to win all his championships
- he went through "the process" of getting those championships
- the competition and type of basketball during the era, I felt this was a more difficult era to play in. Analytics is there for a reason, to make basketball more efficient. In a time where analytics says the game wasn't efficient he was winning dominantly over all the competition

My gripe with Lebron is that he teamed up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh to win his. While building a team of superstars is now accepted, I still put a lot of value in organically built championship teams just like version of of the Golden State Warriors (v1 didn't win multiple times though).

This is not about basketball though. It's about Muhammad Ali. I started with the GOAT argument because I think he is the GOAT athlete ever. I'll place links of the rankings of ESPN and Bleachers report as reference.

ESPN GOAT and Bleachers Report GOAT.

While it's going to be hard to cut across the type of sport played what the list highlights is how these athletes dominated their particular sport. It's also hard to compare because just like my comparison with Jordan and Lebron these people lived in different times and circumstances. I think this actually skewed my perception on why I think Ali was the greatest ever. He may also have influenced my thought because he always declared himself as the greatest ever.

As I watched the video about him I was surprised that during that during the decades of his popularity mainly the 70s and early 80s he was a worldwide phenomenon. Ali had boxing matches around the world and having one done here "The Thrilla in Manila" and he seemed to have a big crowd wherever he went. In this time of the internet and social media I was surprised how popular he was when TV was probably at it's 'teenage years' black and white broadcast and his fights probably wasn't broadcast live.

Another thing which is admirable is his character and conviction to stand up for what he believes in.  He sacrificed his boxing career because he didn't want to fight a war he did not believe in. This was also in a time racism was still (and still is sadly) a flashpoint in American society. He used his larger than life charisma to talk smack to his opponents and to stand strong when defending his convictions. Just like what Jordan did to basketball in the 90s he also seemed to bring boxing to the world stage in the 70s.

Sting like a bee dance like a butterfly is how I remember his actual quote "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee..." but I also remember him always saying saying that we was the greatest. I'll just pull this quote from an article from The Guardian on Ali's best quotes.

"I'm not the greatest. I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round. I'm the boldest, the prettiest, the most superior, most scientific, most skillfullest fighter in the ring today"

His absolute confidence and belief in himself and his continuous bragging and reinforcing this belief of him made us remember him and made Muhammad Ali the greatest athlete ever ever in my eyes.

In times of difficulty it's sometimes good to look at how athletes have a this belief in themselves and backing it up to help them brush through their opponents. We should take inspiration from them that we to can take a look at ourselves a believe that we can pull through anything.