[quote]four60 wrote:
[quote]Drake37 wrote:
This topic is too damn broad![/quote]
True.
I mean was Ali at 25 a better physical specimen than Jordan at the same age?[/quote]
Dude, are you serious? Ali was a great fighter, but Jordan is one of the most explosive athletes of all time. They’re not even in the same ballpark.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
[quote]four60 wrote:
[quote]Drake37 wrote:
This topic is too damn broad![/quote]
True.
I mean was Ali at 25 a better physical specimen than Jordan at the same age?[/quote]
Dude, are you serious? Ali was a great fighter, but Jordan is one of the most explosive athletes of all time. They’re not even in the same ballpark.[/quote]
I don’t agree. Jordan was an amazing player. But I can not say at 25 years of age he could out run or outlast Ali. I mean if they played Ball Jordan would laugh it away, if they boxed Ali would not break a sweat.
I don’t see how you can be so positive Jordan was a better specimen than Ali at 25
[quote]four60 wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
[quote]four60 wrote:
[quote]Drake37 wrote:
This topic is too damn broad![/quote]
True.
I mean was Ali at 25 a better physical specimen than Jordan at the same age?[/quote]
Dude, are you serious? Ali was a great fighter, but Jordan is one of the most explosive athletes of all time. They’re not even in the same ballpark.[/quote]
I don’t agree. Jordan was an amazing player. But I can not say at 25 years of age he could out run or outlast Ali. I mean if they played Ball Jordan would laugh it away, if they boxed Ali would not break a sweat.
I don’t see how you can be so positive Jordan was a better specimen than Ali at 25[/quote]
Dude, seriously? Speed, strength, leaping ability, hand eye coordination, agility, etc… Jordan would MURDER Ali in everyone of those categories.Jordan could’ve easily been an all-pro receiver in the NFL if he chose. He was easily the most athletic dude of his era in a game dominated by incredibly athletic people. This isn’t even a debate.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Dude, seriously? Speed, strength, leaping ability, hand eye coordination, agility, etc… Jordan would MURDER Ali in everyone of those categories.Jordan could’ve easily been an all-pro receiver in the NFL if he chose. He was easily the most athletic dude of his era in a game dominated by incredibly athletic people. This isn’t even a debate.
[/quote]
Being as Muhammad Ali never played basketball, exactly what are you basing this on?
Speed? Ali’s hands are the fastest of any man his size. Hand eye coordination? Nobody’s hand-eye coordination is better than a boxer’s, forget the fastest of them all.
Agility? Who had better footwork? It’s hard to compare them directly because, oh you know, they PLAYED DIFFERENT SPORTS!
But to say that Ali was as good an athlete as Jordan is not being unrealistic. If Jordan trained for 20 years at boxing, he would have lost to Muhammad Ali, because boxing tests more than just your athleticism.
But if Ali trained for 20 years at basketball… I wonder if he could have been as good. Who knows.
WhiteFlash is obviously waaaaaay basketball-biased.
A few guys not mentioned yet:
Sammy Baugh, without a doubt. The dude could play every position in football at a professional level, from kicker to quarterback (set records at both positions). That’s ridiculous. Beyond that, he played basketball and baseball in college AND was signed by the Cardinals. How he hasn’t been mentioned yet blows my mind, he’s absolutely a top 5 candidate.
Joe Mauer is up there, if we’re willing to do some extrapolation on his high school accomplishments. He was the top ranked QB nationally in HS his senior year I believe.
fun fact: Drew Brees beat Andy Roddick in tennis when they were early teens.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Dude, seriously? Speed, strength, leaping ability, hand eye coordination, agility, etc… Jordan would MURDER Ali in everyone of those categories.Jordan could’ve easily been an all-pro receiver in the NFL if he chose. He was easily the most athletic dude of his era in a game dominated by incredibly athletic people. This isn’t even a debate.
[/quote]
Being as Muhammad Ali never played basketball, exactly what are you basing this on?
Speed? Ali’s hands are the fastest of any man his size. Hand eye coordination? Nobody’s hand-eye coordination is better than a boxer’s, forget the fastest of them all.
Agility? Who had better footwork? It’s hard to compare them directly because, oh you know, they PLAYED DIFFERENT SPORTS!
But to say that Ali was as good an athlete as Jordan is not being unrealistic. If Jordan trained for 20 years at boxing, he would have lost to Muhammad Ali, because boxing tests more than just your athleticism.
But if Ali trained for 20 years at basketball… I wonder if he could have been as good. Who knows.[/quote]
This is fucking retarded. You are honestly trying to argue that Ali could compete with Jordan on an athletic level. Your statement that Jordan couldn’t have been a good boxer, but Ali could’ve possibly been a better ball player shows how much you favor boxers. Ali wasn’t even the best boxer of all time and you’re honestly trying to argue that he could’ve possibly been better than the best basketball player of all time? Makes sense.
How could anyone overlook Jan-Michael Vincent as Nanu?
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Dude, seriously? Speed, strength, leaping ability, hand eye coordination, agility, etc… Jordan would MURDER Ali in everyone of those categories.Jordan could’ve easily been an all-pro receiver in the NFL if he chose. He was easily the most athletic dude of his era in a game dominated by incredibly athletic people. This isn’t even a debate.
[/quote]
Being as Muhammad Ali never played basketball, exactly what are you basing this on?
Speed? Ali’s hands are the fastest of any man his size. Hand eye coordination? Nobody’s hand-eye coordination is better than a boxer’s, forget the fastest of them all.
Agility? Who had better footwork? It’s hard to compare them directly because, oh you know, they PLAYED DIFFERENT SPORTS!
But to say that Ali was as good an athlete as Jordan is not being unrealistic. If Jordan trained for 20 years at boxing, he would have lost to Muhammad Ali, because boxing tests more than just your athleticism.
But if Ali trained for 20 years at basketball… I wonder if he could have been as good. Who knows.[/quote]
This is fucking retarded. You are honestly trying to argue that Ali could compete with Jordan on an athletic level. Your statement that Jordan couldn’t have been a good boxer, but Ali could’ve possibly been a better ball player shows how much you favor boxers. Ali wasn’t even the best boxer of all time and you’re honestly trying to argue that he could’ve possibly been better than the best basketball player of all time? Makes sense.
[/quote]
x1000. makes no sense. We know exactly as much about Jordan’s boxing potential as we do about Ali’s basketball potential in terms of skill. We also know a limiting factor for Ali in terms of basketball: his height. None of the top 10 basketball players of all time are under 6’4.
Not a Giants fan but for size, strength, agility, JPP is pretty fucking impressive, he is young but still impressive.
This is why you can not match to athletes fro different sports in the field they excel in. The best you could hope for is who had the best physical makeup to cross over and excel in other arenas.
Ali in his prime - 6’3 205-210, lightning fast long arms and legs, and stamina out of the park.
To say he does not even match up with the best in any arena is PURE insanity
[quote]Bangerangg18 wrote:
How about Dan Henderson, Olympic medal winner, only man to hold two belts in pride at the same time and is a top contender in the ufc at 42! [/quote]
Can’t argue that. I’m a big fan of Dan. Smushed in nose and a pure destroyer. How he went from having only a ground game to a lethal striker is incredible, and a credit to his natural ability.
Freakiest Athletes
Mariusz Pudzianowski - Do I really need to explain this one?
Deion Sanders - Had too many people in NFL that were in awe of him. Never really heard anyone challenge his foot speed, hand eye coordination, ability to read a play. Played two sports and excelled EASILY while boasting about it.
Usain Bolt - nobody has come within .1 seconds of his best time. Look back through history and see if any other athlete has that kind of dominance.
Federer - not a big tennis fan only watched a few matches. I’ve never in any sport seen somebody put the fear in the next best opponent that he did. That’s an amazing ability
Serena - Her physicality is unmatched in my opinion.
I really don’t like comparing how good a person is in one sport to how good they would be in another. While everybody likes to hypothesize, I have never seen any direct proof that being incredible in one makes you incredible in another.
Cricket is a game, not a sport.
Same as bowling, golf and table tennis.
A game.
[quote]Derek542 wrote:
Not a Giants fan but for size, strength, agility, JPP is pretty fucking impressive, he is young but still impressive. [/quote]
I was going to say him, but I think his name hasn’t been put out there enough and who knows maybe jerome kerse in his prime could do back flips. 6’4 265# and runs a 4.43
Lots of great names here already. Thought I’d chime in my 2 cents with a few more.
Alexander Karelin. Dude was a freak. A scary, scary freak.
Bobby Orr. He had more overall athletic ability than Gretzky IMHO.
Bruce Lee. I can’t believe no one mentionned him.
Ken Griffey Jr. Awesome to watch.
Anyone who says guys like Jordan, Brown and Jackson are not at the top of this list must have a different opinion of an athlete than I do.
Ali was not on the level as the original Sugar Ray. If you think so, you don’t know boxing. So some reading on the guy. He was amazing.
[quote]Airtruth wrote:
[quote]Derek542 wrote:
Not a Giants fan but for size, strength, agility, JPP is pretty fucking impressive, he is young but still impressive. [/quote]
I was going to say him, but I think his name hasn’t been put out there enough and who knows maybe jerome kerse in his prime could do back flips. 6’4 265# and runs a 4.43[/quote]
That was the other one Jevon Kearse was a freak of nature also.
[quote]Derek542 wrote:
[quote]Airtruth wrote:
[quote]Derek542 wrote:
Not a Giants fan but for size, strength, agility, JPP is pretty fucking impressive, he is young but still impressive. [/quote]
I was going to say him, but I think his name hasn’t been put out there enough and who knows maybe jerome kerse in his prime could do back flips. 6’4 265# and runs a 4.43[/quote]
That was the other one Jevon Kearse was a freak of nature also. [/quote]
Andrew Luck is 6’4, 240, and ran a 4.67. Not bad for a QB. He might even be able to do a backflip 
This is Jerry Ball. Some of you guys might remember him.
Pro-bowler three years in a row, basically Warren Sapp before Warren Sapp was Warren Sapp.
I saw him in a charity basketball game where he and some of the Lions players were matched up against high school players in the area. I must have been 12 or so.
Anyway, this 6’1 330 tub of a dude dunked a basketball with both hands like Dominique Wilkons.
More than once.
You can talk stamina, strength, flexibility, and speed all day long. But for a dude that big to do what he did on a 10 foot rim blew my fucking mind. Every bit of training this guy did was to push OL’s around and tackle QBs and RBs. Yet he had touch on a jumper and could dunk.
I’m not disagreeing with what you all are saying regarding guys already named, but also know there is a whole bunch of dudes out there who might not even look athletic that would surprise you.
Barry Bonds