Best current pound for pound sportsman

Sheva

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I'll avoid selecting the obvious ones (i can think of at least 3), and go for Valentino Rossi. Until last season i never watched a Moto GP race, then i saw the raceat Donnington in the rain, when he seemed to be toying with the opposition who were just behind him. He then decided to put some air between himself and the others and in the space of a single lap built up a gap of about 5 seconds in what were treacherous conditions.

Even reading some of the sporting threads on this forum, you can see that people are turning away from F1 and are more interested in the 2 wheeled action. I think this is mainly due to Rossi, who has raised the profile of the sport like never before, and more importantly has done it with a smile on his face rather than with a pokerfaced i must win at all costs attitude.

 

Tons of Fun

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Not current but sufficiently contempory to warrant mention.

Sergei Bubka. Not only is this man the greatest Pole Vaulter ever- judging from the performance margin he has over people even after five years in retirement, he may be the best there will ever be.

[*]He has cleared, the once considered unattainable, 6.00 meters or better on more than 44 occasions.

[*]Bubka increased the world record by 21 centimetres (8 inches) in the 4 years between 1984 and 1988, more than other pole vaulters have achieved in the previous 12 years.

Inspired.

 

Papa Lazarou

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Of current sportsmen i'd vote for Rossi too.

He was winning too easily on the Honda RC211V so swapped to Yamaha the following season. The Yamaha M1 was uncompetitive previously - til Rossi got on it. He won on it first time out and continued to dominate the season. This year he's had his fair share out problems with reliability and crashes (mostly not his fault) but i wouldn't bet against him still winning the championship.

If Schumacher was driving a car as uncompetitive as the Yamaha i doubt he'd finish in the top eight - Rossi is a phenomenon.

 

Craig

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1 year old, I guess but Lance Armstrong

Leaving aside any EPO 'issues' the 'athletic' factor of his domination overshadows the expolits of Vale' and Schu, who'd I'd rank pretty equal TBH

 

tones

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Papa Lazarou wrote:

If Schumacher was driving a car as uncompetitive as the Yamaha i doubt he'd finish in the top eight - Rossi is a phenomenon.
But he was (in his first year with Ferrari) and he won three times. Thrashing the field in a downpour in Spain in an evil-handling Ferrari running on 9 cylinders was one of the great drives of all time.

Having said that, Rossi is indeed a phenomenon and I try not to miss MotoGPs, which are generally much more entertaining than F1.

 

Craig

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tones wrote:

Papa Lazarou wrote:
If Schumacher was driving a car as uncompetitive as the Yamaha i doubt he'd finish in the top eight - Rossi is a phenomenon.
But he was (in his first year with Ferrari) and he won three times. Thrashing the field in a downpour in Spain in an evil-handling Ferrari running on 9 cylinders was one of the great drives of all time.

Having said that, Rossi is indeed a phenomenon and I try not to miss MotoGPs, which are generally much more entertaining than F1.
not to mention, should one chose to believe the story, that he raced the 95 Barca race in 5th gear.

 

griffo104

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Maybe it's just me as I'm no big fan of motorsports but you can never judge how much the machine is contributing.

For me the best sportsman is the world could beRoger Federer.

But for me it has to be Shane Warne - he's been at the top of sport for years, still has a hunger for it, smokes and drinks likea true aussie - so he's got more weight than any guy from motorsportsand therefore more pounds:p

 

Papa Lazarou

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Federer would certainly be my next choice after Rossi.

He may just prove to be the greatest tennis player ever - time seems to be on his side.

 

Sheva

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When i started the thread i thought that the most popular may be TigerW, but he's not gotmentioned so far. Glad that Valentino has got another vote, but Warne was an interesting call.

 

Matt J

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A couple of years ago I'd say Roy Jones Jr, moving up and down weights beating all comers like nobody's business, but he's lost hissparkle in the last couple of years and had a few shock defeats which has taken the edge of his achievments, I know you cant go undefeated forever (excluding marciano) but it was just the manner of his defeats when you consider the level of talent he has/had.

Sebastian Loeb has achieved LOADS in the small time he's been in the WRC, already passed the record of rally wins and he has years to go yet, so could be on for him to do what schumacher has done in F1 and make all the records more or less un-reachable.

But I'd have to go with Rossi to be honest, you couldnt ask for anything more from the guy, he's as good off the bike as on it, can certainly drive a bit and would love to see him in F1 after he's had enough of the bikes
cool.gif.9d6c72c555b38e519336a6d9b55ca875.gif


 

The Strat

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Papa Lazarou wrote:

If Schumacher was driving a car as uncompetitive as the Yamaha i doubt he'd finish in the top eight - Rossi is a phenomenon.
I think Schui has been awesome in an uncompetitive car. He won the world championship twice in a Benneton - nobody else could sniff a win in that thing - and when he first went to Ferrari it was a clearly inferior car to the McClaren yet he literally forced race victories out of it.

Although agree Rossiis brilliant.

 

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