After an exhausting 14th round, Ali feels like quitting but Dundee persuades him to go on. Futch finally succumbs to Frazier's begging and pleading for Futch to not stop the fight. What happens during this iconic 15th round?
I believe Ali would have knocked him out or the referee would have jumped in and mercifully stopped Ali from killing Frazier. He was absolutely teeing off on Frazier in the 13th and 14th rounds. As weak of a puncher Ali was the accumulation of all those blows were having a terrible effect on Frazier. He was blind in one eye and taking shots with absolutely no defence.
That's your opinion. He was beating the **** out of Frazier the last two rounds with renewed vigour, if he had "nearly died" he wasn't showing it. Frazier was the one who was completely exhausted. He was blind in one eye and so tired he could no longer keep his hands up. I believe Ali would have finished him off in the 15th if Eddie Futch hadn't rescued Frazier.
I have never understood why Ali fought these long fights- he didn't have to. He told us in 1965 that he possessed the secret Anchor Punch that "will knock anybody out". None of his fights should have been more than one or two rounds.
It's interesting to note that, except in the second fight with Liston (a highly suspect bout), Ali never knocked someone in the first round.
If Ali was able to continue the way he was fighting I suspect he either stops Joe or wins on points. I say if because Ali did melt to the canvas after he got off his stool when Eddie waved the fight off. Ali had won both 13 and 14 big but he expended so much energy late in the fight, a brutal fight that he may have hit the wall physically. Ali fanboys will say he was just sitting on the canvas because it was comfortable. Anyway point is we don't know. I don't believe either man would've ever quit.
Yes, that is interesting. Especially, since Ali told us he had a secret punch that would knock anybody out. Why didn't he use it in all of his fights?