James Toney makes a clear pick for the greatest fighter of all time: “Muhammad Ali ain’t it”

Three-division world champion James Toney has named whom he believes to be the greatest fighter of all time, explaining why he thinks Muhammad Ali does not deserve the accolade which he is often credited with.

Ali is often labelled as the greatest to have ever laced up the gloves, largely for the way he reinvented the definition of a heavyweight boxer; possessing the footwork, speed and IQ of a middleweight and dominating his divisional rivals with skill rather than power.

The man known as ‘The Greatest’ was the first fighter to win the heavyweight title on three separate occasions – a feat that has been achieved by three others since.

Yet, despite the achievements and approval of the masses, Toney shut down the idea of Ali being the greatest fighter of all time. Instead, ‘Lights Out’ explained why he believes Sugar Ray Robinson was superior, in an interview with WiseNuts.

“Ali ain’t the greatest fighter of all time, when he was Cassius Clay he was great, Ali is trash. The greatest fighter of all time is Sugar Ray Robinson, that guy was beautiful he fought beautiful. Ali wanted to be him, that was Ali’s idol, Ali tried to fight like him but he couldn’t do it.”

“I’m an Ali fan myself but I’m sorry, he is not the greatest fighter of all time. It’s [Sugar] Ray Robinson and James Toney second, period. If you look at how we did, we did it the right way … I fought, Ray Robinson, we fought. Where is he from? My hometown, Detroit. We do it like nobody else can.”

In a separate interview, Toney also omitted Ali from his ‘top five’ fighters in boxing history, but found room for three alternate former heavyweight champions.