Muhammad Ali is known to have changed the landscape of boxing throughout the course of his storied career.
He entered the paid ranks during the back end of 1960, just months after he captured a light-heavyweight gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rome, Italy.
Ali dethroned the legendary Sonny Liston of his world heavyweight championship in February 1964, stopping his countryman in the sixth round of their bout in Miami, Florida.
He made a handful of successful title defences before he was forced to take a three-year hiatus from boxing, but would return in 1970 and begin his pursuit of capturing the heavyweight championship once again.
After one unsuccessful attempt against Joe Frazier, Ali defeated George Foreman in October of 1974, stopping ‘Big George’ in the eighth round of their showdown in Zaire, which is more commonly known as ‘The Rumble In The Jungle’.
Despite his success, legendary trainer Cus D’Amato once told Ali that there was just one heavyweight in particular that would have got the better of him, as revealed in a historic debate between the pair.
“Yes, I believe Joe Louis would beat you. Probably [you could] outpoint [him] for the better part of the fight, but towards the end of the fight, he would catch up to you, as he catches up to everyone else, and take you out of there.”
Similar to Ali, Louis remains one of the sport’s most influential figures. He made 25 successful defences of his world heavyweight championship between 1937 and 1948, an outstanding record that remains unbroken to this very day.
Throughout the course of his 69-fight professional career, Louis suffered just several defeats before his official retirement from boxing in 1949.