Muhammad Ali never avoided an 'easy fight'. In 1968, Joe Frazier said he would never fight Floyd Patterson, in fear of hurting a great former champion, though he could have pulled in a Philadelphia Bus filled with money. Now lets get to the brass tacks, there were at least '20' other fighters that should have gotten an opportunity to fight for the World Heavyweight Championship over Brian London, who already had his shot. Brian London came after George Chuvalo, who came after an injured Floyd Patterson, who came after 'Dive II' with Sonny Liston, who came after the 'Fix' with Sonny Liston, who came after the 'split glove' and off the floor win over Henry Cooper, who came after the disputed Decision over Doug Jones.
Yes,,,,fully agree. But, some Champions really pushed the envelope, as they got the public and TV networks into believing some fighters were worthy challengers, and came into the bout so-called 'out-of-shape' to fool everybody into thinking maybe the 'challenger' had a chance. When the insiders knew, that it was 'no sale'.
I feel Ali's first reign was respectable. The second reign was a joke to me, at least after 1975. I feel boxing history went off the rails in '76, when the world took for granted that Ali was invincible, despite awful performances and endless gifts from the judges. If there had been some actual fairness kicking around at the time, Ali's record would now read more accurately at about 7 or 8 losses on it. He'd still be one of the greats, but not widey considered as THE greatest. Norton had his number, and Shavers pounded the hell out of him.
No matter how you cut it, * Chuck Wepner * Jean-Pierre Coopman * Richard Dunn * Alfredo Evangilista Were completely 'off the rails' as World-rated quality professionals. Lets not forget, Muhammad Ali actually pulled out of fighting Lorenzo Zanon too. Yes, he turned the Heavyweight Championship into a 'sad joke'.
And your point IS......??? At risk of sounding repetitive,ALL great champions have the odd easy one,mixed in with their tough ones. Muhammad Ali beat three fellow all time greats plus a host of very good heavyweights. Compare his resume with ANY champion before or since. As I've said before,Pepe,feature some other heavyweight champions in your statistical breakdowns.
I believe that if Frazier had more than 37 fights,we would see more tomato cans in his resume/record.
Yes, I agree, Lets add + Chuck Wepner, Jean-Pierre Coopman, Richard Dunn and Alfredo Evangilista. That's an....... 'easy' 4 Knockout wins.