With Marc Marquez on the brink of a classic Agostini-equalling eighth premier-class title, the question won’t go away. Who is motorcycle racing’s Greatest Of All Time?
Is it not a nonsensical proposition? You can only be the greatest of your own time. You can only beat those who are there to be beaten.
The competition is one thing. The level of equipment something else.
Giacomo Agostini, the most decorated rider of all time, had an MV Agusta, a bike so good that sometimes he lapped most of his ‘rivals’.
How about Mick Doohan? Why not? But while Mick towered head and shoulders above everyone else on track with him, let’s not forget that his glory years came after the departure, for various reasons, of a trio of great Americans… Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz.
Of course that might have been different had Mick not been hurt in 1992 when he was running away with it. Then again, it might have been different if Rainey hadn’t crashed terminally in 1993…
You get the point. No matter how great you are, it might always have been different.
The most recent past candidate is of course Valentino Rossi, 125 and 250 champion, dominant on 500cc two-strokes and then on Honda and Yamaha MotoGP four-strokes.
Valentino had something else: star quality, his charm raising the profile of GP racing worldwide. No wonder many still insist he is the unrivalled GOAT.
Yet Valentino, like GOATS before him, had his downfall. His purple patch ended when he defiantly switched to Ducati. He won more races after returning somewhat shamefacedly to Yamaha two seasons later, but the serial domination was over.
So where should we rank Marc Marquez in the scale of history? He is still adding to his legend.
The numbers are strong. In individual race wins he has 80 in the premier class, just nine short of Rossi’s 89, well clear of Ago’s 68. Rossi raced for 22 years for that total; Marc has done it in 14.
Numbers are one way of measuring. There are personal metrics as well. Specifically, overcoming injury.
Doohan set the standard. His 1992 crash left him with a permanently damaged leg after a long-lasting medical nightmare. His return to subsequent domination remains a shining example of courage.
Marc has made two comebacks from injury. His first travail began in 2021 when he broke his right arm. There followed two horrible years spanning four surgeries while struggling with a recalcitrant Honda. Joining Ducati in 2024 was the key to a return to winning.
Already champion in 2025, he was knocked off before the end of the season by charging-bull Marco Bezzecchi, starting another medical nightmare. He had fractured his right shoulder, an oft-injured joint.
It was sort of fixed for this season… but not really. An errant fixing screw was interfering with the crucial radial nerve in his right arm. It was painful, but also robbed him of feeling and control, and triggered another string of crashes.
He was riding, he revealed to Ducati, with “half an arm” – literally true in terms of muscle strength, his doctor later confirmed. Another operation removed the troublesome screw, but didn’t solve the problem of weakness and hampered movement.
He returned within three weeks, more than 100 points off the championship lead. Nobody had ever recovered from such a deficit. Still weak and lop-sided, he had to change his technique. But through a series of both Sprint and GP wins (seven of each) he fought back to lead the championship. It will take something bizarre to stop him winning it.
There is one other thing that to me sets Marc apart. He has never belittled or poured scorn on his rivals like Valentino. His mind games are much more subtle.
Greatest Of All Time impossible? I’m getting tempted to change my mind.
