Say we have both guys at their best here and having already fought a first time to a draw we now have a rematch. Now the twist is we swap the trainers around.... Dundee with Louis and Blackburn with Ali. No doubting Louis was a master at the rematch but how much of that was down to Blackburn being in his corner ? Who you got and why ?
I reckon we can all agree that Ali was by far the better improviser; a free spirit, even. I doubt he'd even listen to Blackburn, and Blackburn would want to shoot him. Dundee struck me as a motivational man more than a technical tinkerer. Maybe he would work for Louis, but I think sometimes Joe needed to be exposed to different ideas by an observer, whereas Ali ran with his own. That said, Blackburn was most important in the early days of Louis' professional refinement; in his prime years he mostly needed support and motivation rather than boxing lessons - maybe Dundee could provide that, plus some broad mid-fight pattern adjustments. I'll stick with Louis.
Louis would definitely get the worst of this exchange. I honestly don't know if Dundee could have developed Louis into anything like what he eventualy became.
As I understood the question, they would be taken at their best and swap trainers for one fight (a rematch, sequel to a draw). Otherwise I would agree with you; with Dundee from the start, Louis would be a consistent top ten ranking contender for a few years but little more. Ali would be shot dead by Blackburn.
Oh, Chappie was a razor-man ..... I understand he made a point of having his razor out when Louis was first introduced to him. But, yeah, Blackburn did shoot a man in an argument about Blackburn's common law wife, served five years of a fifteen year murder sentence. Not a guy you want to **** off.
