Muhammed Ali vs Larry Holmes - Abilities breakdown comparison

Prime Holmes does not beat prime Ali but neither does any other heavyweight in history.

 

Big George you are biased, I see no reason not to favor Holmes jab, & he has at least even power, normally an edge.

Ali '70-'78 vs. Holmes '78-'85 would be close. I give Ali a slight edge at least during those 1st/best 5 years. Both got gift decisions, Ali maybe 1 more, but fought better competition.

Ali '64-'67 it is not really close. For all the reasons many have cited, chief amongst them speed, especially legs, ability to move/dance throughout, & footwork.
Holmes owes so much to Ali & is an ATG, but he cannot match Ali's preternatural reflexes & special HW abilities.

 

I think Holmes's jab was superior maybe not as fast, but longer, straighter ,and harder.
If he had hooked off it he may have been just about unbeatable

 

The Ali of 1972-74 v the 1978-82 incarnation of Holmes would be a really good bout. I'd give the edge to Ali.

 

Power-Even
Hand speed-Ali
Footwork/quickness-Ali (big margin)
Stamina-even
Strength-Ali
Ring IQ- Ali
Heart-even
Defense- Ali
Chin-Ali
Holmes was a great fighter but Ali did most things better. Holmes May have had a slightly better jab but it was marginal. Ali's advantage in quickness especially footwork would be pretty decided.

 

difficult to rate whod win based on listing perceived advantages in any physical/technical area. theres no way of accurately measuring most of it exactly any way.
give Tyson the supposedly 'superior' footwork of ali and I dout he'd have achieved a tenth of what he did. horses for courses.
Sugar ray robinson seemed superior in every category to randy turpin but found him extremely difficult to box once the bell went.
turpins strengths were much less obvious, and what was even less obvious was how those skills would affect robinsons abilty to do his own thing.
we all knew how much better Robinsons jab was on paper, but on the night he couldnt get it off and it was turpins jab which was dominant. who saw that coming?
Germaine taylor did pretty much everything 'better' than carl froch, but taylor found froch awkward to box.
Ali might've had every advantage over holmes (though I don't agree that he did) and it still wouldn't give much indication as to how the fight might go.
Only through the hard work of experience in analysing how the two styles may mesh can we get a list of possible outcomes. that's the best we can do

 

Good Post!:good