No one will ever top Rossi in my mind. I think a lot of it has to do with his personality also. Such a likable guy.
Rossi has actually done a significant amount of irreparable damage to his reputation by the continuous shots at Marquez throughout retirement while Marc has taken the high road every single comment made. The kick was the start of the downfall in my opinion and he just can’t get over the remainder. Marc will not beat his record due to those 3 lost years but any competent enthusiast of the sport knows Rossi raced in a less competitive age of machinery and more specifically talent. Marc has won and dominated in both eras.
Starting to think that might have been a bit of an act. Maybe he's not full on Biaggi but he might not be quite as saintly as he portrayed. Shit if I know.
Act or not, Rossi always looked like he was having fun. Marquez, not so much. Any way, Hailwood is the GOAT.
It is easy to look like you are having fun when you are winning. It didn't look like Rossi was having much fun on the Ducati...
Sounds like bullshit to me. Rossi won on 500’s and modern era crap. Thinking the current riders are better and more competitive than they were in the early 2000’s is delusional.
Thinking Marc couldn't have done it, or Mick couldn't have adapted to the modern stuff is equally delusional. Mick was gone when Rossi showed up (he just slotted right into Micks team and seat, btw), so there's no comparison there. Marc beat Rossi in the twilight of his career, imo, but Marc also beat the guys that beat Rossi when he riding at a much higher level than when Marc took the reigns. Marcs also never requested a wall like that 46 bitch either. He just took his lumps and/or went out and beat them.
Define GOAT. Revolutionized the sport? Rossi all day long. The fans he brought, the on screen personality (act or not, result is the same), the records he set, racing at the top level into his 40s, the academy, the VR46 teams, and the championships bridging the single biggest evolutionary change in GP’s history. Worth noting that it’s ludicrous to say other riders couldn’t have won in both eras but the fact remains, even if only by fortunate timing, Rossi was the only one to do it. These 2 things are not mutually exclusive. Both can true and him doing it still carries weight. Most skilled? Shit Rossi wasn’t even the most skilled in his own career. In fact, I’d say he’s third. Marc and Casey are both easily ahead of him. Hard to determine outright skill across multiple generations. Objective comparison is not as straight forward but going off what each rider did compared to their contemporaries on at least similar equipment, I think there’s 4 in this discussion: Hailwood, Doohan, Casey, Marc. Casey immediately falls to the rear just due to sheer statistics. I lean towards Marc but acknowledge there may be some recency bias there. That said, I also think some people have a tendency to look at history through rose tinted glasses. And then there’s pure statistics which go to Ago & Rossi obviously (for now). But given how blind pure statistics are to the other categories, I don’t personally find this to be a very effective argument without at least some contextual consideration of those other categories. Right now, I think this argument is rather unclear. There’s a few stances you could take. I think in 3 years, it will be far more difficult to argue against one rider in particular…
Ago had to race the TT course to win championships so it's still Giacomo Agostini and these creampuffs will never be that cool.
So did Hailwood and he came back after not racing there for eleven years and still won first time out and a week later he beat them all again at Mallory Park.
