Muhammad Ali; Is he Still the Greatest? Data Crunching of the Surface Web and an Insight on Performance Enhancing Drugs

Background: Muhammad Ali, the boxing legend, is often memorialised as the greatest athlete ever lived. However, many critics argue that the boxing days are over. Other sports have taken the lead, specifically mixed martial arts, currently embodied by the ultimate fighting championship.The study will analyse the web for the popularity of three fighter athletes; Muhammad Ali, Conor McGregor, and Bill Goldberg.

Methods: The analysis is retrospective and based on data retrieved from Google trends databases; the analysis was carried out for the years 2012-2016, using inferential statistics at 90% confidence interval.
These analyses were done worldwide and in seven geographic locations; United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, India, Iraq, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.

Results: For the past five years, Ali and McGregor were the most popular worldwide; Ali versus McGregor statistics yielded a p-value of 0.117. The rise in popularity of McGregor was correlated to be simultaneous with his matches in 2015 and 2016. Goldberg’s popularity was much lower compared to Ali (p-value of 0.061) in 2016, though he returned to the wrestling “business” in October-2016.

Conclusion: There is a remarkable popularity for Ali and McGregor; they are in competition primarily in the developed world, while Goldberg’s popularity is apparently highest in the developing countries.McGregor’s popularity was on the rise in 2016, and it was most noticeable by his nationals in the United Kingdom, while Ali, on the other hand, was the most popular icon worldwide and in the developing world, particularly in Islamic countries. Decades after his retirement, Ali is still the greatest.