{"id":683505,"date":"2026-07-10T02:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T02:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/683505\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T02:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T02:59:13","slug":"teddy-atlas-names-joe-louis-greatest-heavyweight-over-muhammad-ali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/683505\/","title":{"rendered":"Teddy Atlas Names Joe Louis Greatest Heavyweight Over Muhammad Ali"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxing247.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add East Side Boxing as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770669047_552_google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqKAgKIiJDQklTRXdnTWFnOEtEV0p2ZUdsdVp6STBOeTVqYjIwb0FBUAE?ceid=US:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow East Side Boxing on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, he was called the greatest, but he\u2019s not quite the greatest on this list,\u201d Atlas said on his channel of Ali. \u201cHe\u2019s damn close. But he was great. He was special. He was a pioneer. He was part of history. He did as much outside the game as he did inside the ring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Atlas credited Ali\u2019s unmatched speed, his return from a three-and-a-half-year exile and his ability to regain the heavyweight championship after losing much of his athletic prime. He described the first half of Ali\u2019s career as a showcase of extraordinary skill and the second as a testament to his determination.<\/p>\n<p>For Atlas, however, Louis\u2019 resume ultimately carried greater weight.<\/p>\n<p>He called Louis the greatest finisher in heavyweight history, praising his balance, precision and ability to close the show whenever an opponent was hurt. Atlas also pointed to the historical importance of Louis\u2019 first-round destruction of Schmeling on June 22, 1938, months before the outbreak of World War II.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis man don\u2019t only have to fight a guy who already beat him, he\u2019s got to defend the world,\u201d Atlas said. \u201cThe whole world was weighing on the shoulders of Joe Louis. He annihilated Max Schmeling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Atlas argued that no heavyweight has ever entered a fight under greater pressure than Louis, with the bout taking on enormous political significance as Nazi Germany promoted Schmeling as a symbol of its claimed racial superiority. Louis answered with one of the most decisive victories in boxing history, stopping Schmeling in just 2:04 of the opening round.<\/p>\n<p>Atlas\u2019 top five heavyweights are Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Jack Johnson, Rocky Marciano and George Foreman. He also left an open spot on his list for Oleksandr Usyk, saying the Ukrainian has already earned a place among the all-time greats but should complete his career before being ranked.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Youtube video\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\" nopin=\"nopin\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783652353_215_hqdefault.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYeah, he was called the greatest, but he\u2019s not quite the greatest on this list,\u201d Atlas said on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-683505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}