By David Martinez / Boxing Historian / dmboxing.com

In part five of my six part series on Muhammad Ali, I would like to give you my personal view of ten incredible highlight facts during his boxing career:

1 ) Ali is the only one to have won the linear heavyweight championship three times 다운로드. The linear title is recognized by tracing an unbroken lineage of titleholders going back over 100 years, with every champion defeating the previous title holder in the ring 다운로드.

2 ) Ali has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine 37 times, second only to Michael Jordan.

3 ) According to many boxing historians, they rate Ali as the greatest heavyweight of all time 다운로드. In my personal rankings I rate Ali #1, just ahead of Joe Louis.

4 ) The May 25, 1965 photo of Ali knocking out Sonny Liston in the first round is one of the greatest sports photos of the 20th century 다운로드.

5 ) Ring Magazine and ESPN.com rank Ali as the second greatest fighter, behind Sugar Ray Robinson, in the history of boxing in the last 100 years 다운로드. My personal top fifteen greatest boxers (alphabetically) are: Ali, Henry Armstrong, Jack Dempsey, Roberto Duran, Joe Gans, Harry Greb, Eder Jofre, Jack Johnson, Sam Langford, Benny Leonard, Joe Louis, Carlos Monzon, Willie Pep, Sugar Ray Robinson, Jimmy Wilde.

6 ) Certainly the most gifted heavyweight champion with quickness, a superior left jab and footwork beyond any from John L Sullivan (1875) to our present day champions.

7 ) The most recognized sports figure over a three decade period of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and maybe ever.

8 ) Fought Joe Frazier in three epic trilogy bouts, with the March 8, 1971 fight between two undefeated champions – the “ fight of the century” ; his third fight, The Thrilla in Manila, October 1, 1975, is considered, arguably, the greatest heavyweight title fight of all time.

9 ) Ali’s, October 30, 1974 historical heavyweight championship bout with, then, undefeated George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, Africa, handing Foreman his only knockout loss in his 81 bout professional career.

10) His combined his amateur and professional ring record is an amazing 156 wins, with 10 losses. The only man to have stopped him in 166 total fights was Larry Holmes; this was in Ali’s second to last fight before he retired, and it came three months shy of his 39th birthday.

*** NOTE *** With no current or scheduled fights happening on which to report due to the Coronavirus situation, I am posting six of my personal accounts on Muhammad Ali on a weekly basis and will include selected Ali photos from my private collection for viewing.