60s Prime Ali in the 70s

It depends when he faces them. If he faces Frazier, Foreman, Holmes and Norton first, and only fights them once each, he might win them all. If those four come last and he's been slowed a bit by the others, he's going to pick up a couple of losses. If Ali fought each fighter twice, that's sixteen fights, I'd expect him to lose about three.

 

Excellent post, I totally agree.

 

Ali would defeat all of them.

 

He would have kicked some serious ass.

 

Frazier and Holmes have a chance. Ali beats all the others- for sure, either by a wide decision or stoppage.

 

Ali beats them all.Holmes and Frazier would give him the closest fights, but Ali would still beat them by UD's.

A

 

So it's an actual schedule he faces?

He loses to Frazier in his first defence.

If he trains adequately he'll beat norton, but there's also the chance he underestimates him and loses a close decision.

In his prime he still beats Foreman as he was too fast for foreman to hit and a big man missing that many punches in a fight spells trouble. Late stoppage for Ali.

Prime Ali could do everything YOung did but better. Crappy wide decision.

Lyle, Shavers and Spinks would all be wildly overmatched and probably stopped around the 8th round each.

Holmes, at the end of a gauntlet like this (after what I expect to be 3 easy fights) could catch Ali unmotivated and beat him up. Assuming Ali trains correctly and doesn't pick up an injury, he'll beat him on the outside in one of the best jab battles we'll ever see. However, Ali did show he could lose motivation and believe in his own hype so I'm assuming Holmes would catch him at the right time.

6-2 (4)

 

1967 Muhammad Ali

The Frazier fight would still be close. Ali would most likely not absorb as much
damage as he did in 1971 (FOTC). But, Smokin Joe was still one tough S.O.B.
and had the perfect style to foil Muhammad Ali at any stage of his career.

Lets not forget, Joe Frazier was actually much quicker and punched much faster in 1968/1969/1970.

The 1971 Joe Frazier beats the 67' Ali, by a close decision (8-6-1)
The 1974 Joe Frazier loses to 67' Ali, by a close decision. (8-5-2)
The 1975 Joe Frazier, loses to 67' Ali, by a wide decision. (10-4-1)

In 1975, the heavier Ali punched a bit harder than the 1967 Ali.

 

All of them,bar Norton,Frazier and Holmes would be relatively easy for Muhammad. Although Foreman's power would always have to be respected. Ali would outspeed Holmes,and his fights with Joe and Ken would be like Norton II and Frazier II in real time,but with more daylight between Muhammad and them on the scorecards.

 

1967 Muhammad Ali vs Larry Holmes

The 1978 thru 1983 Larry Holmes wins a close decision over 1967 Muhammad Ali.

Larry Holmes piston-like jab will neutralize Ali's jab. All fights are a close though.
Holmes by 7-6-2 in Rounds.

The 67' Ali would out-point the 84' thru 86' Holmes by a solid decision.
Ali by 9-4-2 in Rounds.

 

The obvious answer is that he would have done better.

However if he schooled everyone in sight it could possibly make his legacy less colorful. The saga with Frazier and Foreman elevated all of their respective careers.

 

:good

Jimmy young would lose a close decision but it would be clear that Ali won this time.

Norton will always be a nightmare for Ali and their fights will always be close and I'd pick kenny to take at least one.

Foreman I fee has a better chance in this fight than the rumble in the jungle. Ali was covering up and was easily taking foreman's punches as he never really was caught completely flush. I'd expect Foreman to at least rockAli and maybe floor him if he was going to be coming forward and press the action, however I'd still favour Ali with a few shaky overs in there. Not ruling out Foreman by KO though.

Frazier much like Norton will always cause a very tough fight for Ali. Im not sure Frazier from the FOTC could be stopped from beating Ali however this would be a razor thn decision for Joe. In the other two fights however he is beaten more comfortably. 8-4 in fight number 2 and stops him or wins an 11-4 decision

Holmes is a tough one and very hard to tell how it would go. If Holmes tried to be the aggressor I think he does better as he has the stamina to trouble Ali, however would get slightly out jabbed by Ali and would lose a close but
decisive decision.

Spinks. ... no comment

Shavers gets schooled but could land a big bomb on Ali if he gets careless. Ali by wide wide wide UD but could see the canvas

Lyle I see a lot like the shavers fight but lyle boxes a bit better than shavers and maybe takes 4/5 rounds.

I think there really isn't a great difference between Ali 67 to Ali 71 as his style matches up differently to different fighters. The ring IQ makes up for the slight deterioration in his speed power and pop. I think both versions of Ali are still the best 2 H2H versions of any heavyweights, however there will always be other fighters that match up poor stylistically and no matter how good or bad of a fighter they are will always cause problems, like norton and Frazier being a prime example of this

 

A 1971 Frazier versus the 1964 Cassius Clay ?

.... I think Frazier beats him. He's a different fighter entirely to the Sonny Liston who quit 'with a hurt shoulder'.

 

I suspect that in 1964 Ali was not yet ready for Joe Frazier. He was still quite inexperienced and at 22 didn't have the full physical strength that he developed as his body matured over the next couple of years.

All the others I'd expect him to win fairly convincingly.

 

I think a prime Ali beats all of these guys and any other Heavy in history. Pass the doobie.