I Thought Ali Won The F.o.t.c.

[Bill Butcher]

I think Im the only person alive who thinks Muhammad Ali should have won a close decision in the fight of the century vs joe frazier.

I certainly have no problem with frazier getting the verdict as it WAS a close fight but here`s what I saw in a nut shell....

Ali landing many more punches.
Ali winning more rds.
Frazier winning the 11th & 15th rds big.
Ali clowning on the ropes when he had a big lead giving away unnecessary points.

I had heard how frazier beat Ali in that fight & watched expecting just that but what I saw was a quite even fight which I gave to Ali as I dont think the big 11th & 15th rds were enough to overtake Ali`s other rds that he built up.

1 judge only gave Ali 4 rds... that was a pure utter disgrace.
People always point to the FOTC as to who was better in their prime because it was their 1st fight & I agree.... I watch that fight & think how dominant a 1967 Ali would be over Frazier... clear UD.

[McGrain]

Everyone who is heavily into boxing should believe one mad thing. Good for you.

[Pat_Lowe]

Originally Posted by McGrain

Everyone who is heavily into boxing should believe one mad thing. Good for you.

So you would consider your Burley obsession 'mad'?

[McGrain]

Originally Posted by Pat_Lowe

So you would consider your Burley obsession 'mad'?

It's hardly an obsession.

[Primadonna Kool]

Originally Posted by I Am Legend

Doesn't change the fact that both Ali and Frazier were 3 classes below 1986 Mega-Tyson™

You silly twat.

[MagnificentMatt]

Originally Posted by Bill Butcher

I think Im the only person alive who thinks Muhammad Ali should have won a close decision in the fight of the century vs joe frazier.

I certainly have no problem with frazier getting the verdict as it WAS a close fight but here`s what I saw in a nut shell....

Ali landing many more punches.
Ali winning more rds.
Frazier winning the 11th & 15th rds big.
Ali clowning on the ropes when he had a big lead giving away unnecessary points.

I had heard how frazier beat Ali in that fight & watched expecting just that but what I saw was a quite even fight which I gave to Ali as I dont think the big 11th & 15th rds were enough to overtake Ali`s other rds that he built up.

1 judge only gave Ali 4 rds... that was a pure utter disgrace.
People always point to the FOTC as to who was better in their prime because it was their 1st fight & I agree.... I watch that fight & think how dominant a 1967 Ali would be over Frazier... clear UD.

Yeah, I thought Baldomir beat Floyd as well, he had some effective aggression going on...........

[smokin joe]

bullshit fraizer whooped that ass and they both knew it, once fraizer got smokin ali couldnt do much

[Sizzle]

Yeh, I haven't watched the fight in awhile but I scored it for Ali also.

I always wanted to see the punchstats on that fight, I thought Ali controlled the most-part of the fight with his jab and would've landed double the overall number of punches Frazier did.

Having said that I'm able to acknowledge my opinion isn't the be-all end-all and that if virtually everyone agrees Frazier won the fight, then he won the fight.

[yancey]

de leted

[SteveO]

Joe beat Ali soundly, with the knockdown in the 15th as the clincher.

Ali if memory serves spent a lot of time eating hooks and backing up, and not doing much. He won rounds, kept it close to be honest, but Joe won it.

The following fights were a different story. Joe was a broken man by the time they took a trip to the Phillipines.

[yancey]

de leted

[anut]

Originally Posted by I Am Legend

Doesn't change the fact that both Ali and Frazier were 3 classes below 1986 Mega-Tyson™

hey dude im not sayin tyson is a bum like sum guys on here.....but i watched tyson/tucker last nite..........tyson struggled dude..........ali would easily beat tucker...........and joe frazier would knock him out....tyson couldnt

[SteveO]

Originally Posted by yancey

A broken man who quite possibly won the 2nd fight (many astute observers scored the 2nd fight for Frazier), and had Ali wanting to "cut off these gloves" in the 3rd fight.

I'm not saying his will...but he diminished as a fighter.

But not in the heart department.

[The Kurgan]

If you look closely at the scoring criteria the fight they were scored under (NYSAC rules of the early 1970s) aggression was seen as very important, whether it was effective or not. Thus, whoever started exchanges had an instant advantage in the scoring of a round. Furthermore, New York judges tended to be much more harsh on clinching in those days, and both boxers knew it.

Taking this into account, I think any scorecard that scores it for Frazier for LESS than 8-6-1 Frazier (Mercante's scorecard) is pretty unreasonable. I personally scored it 10-5 Frazier, and it isn't too much of a stretch to score the bout 11-4 Frazier (as one judge did). Had it been scored on a 10-points must system, I'd have had Frazier winning 145-138, ie. a 7 point lead (due to the 11th and 15th rounds). That's a huge edge, which doesn't reflect how close the fight actually was (round by round Frazier dominated, but Ali inflicted a lot of damage and held his own in every individual round).

[ChrisPontius]

Originally Posted by Sizzle

I always wanted to see the punchstats on that fight

I counted them a while ago. Only counted the number of punches though, not how many landed:

-FRAZIERS STATS-

Round 1 31
Round 2 29
Round 3 37
Round 4 42
Round 5 38
Round 6 54
Round 7 51
Round 8 73
Round 9 44
Round 10 49
Round 11 63
Round 12 53
Round 13 62
Round 14 32
Round 15 43

Total punches thrown: 701.
Average punch output per round: 47.

-ALI'S STATS-

Round 1 53
Round 2 66
Round 3 63
Round 4 66
Round 5 72
Round 6 43
Round 7 60
Round 8 46
Round 9 81
Round 10 66
Round 11 46
Round 12 58
Round 13 65
Round 14 65
Round 15 57



Total punches thrown: 907.
Average punch output per round: 60.


It should be noted that Frazier threw a negligible amount of jabs. A lot of his punches were power punches, where Ali threw many jabs.