Who gives prime Ali his greatest test?

I think Holmes .. matching him in height, reach, a killer lightning jab .. Ali would be way too fast for Wlad and he'd slice him up .. Lewis could be a tough match up but again Ali's speed was so superior .. Tyson had physical skills but was too weak mentally and would not keep the focus and intensity over 15 rounds needed .. maybe a rematched , highly motivated Louis as of the Baer fight type ..

 

Ali in 1971 said out of all the champions he thought Johnson would be the toughest fight because of his style.
Other than that Marciano Louis Tyson all equally tough fights for Ali.

 

Ali-Johnson would be a tough fight for the referee.
They would spend the fight clinching and holding and the ref would work himself to death trying to separate them.

 

Do you think Ali was vulnerable to the left hook?

I seem to remember inferior athletes than Wlad having success with it. But that must mean I'm hallucinating, of course. The Ali that gets spoken of here never got touched, let alone knocked down or lost.

And Wlad transforms from being a skilled, athletic, smart boxer with knockout power in each hand to Butterbean.

Gotta love the hero worship here. Heck, there's no arguing with people who consider the late 70's a Golden Age of anything heavyweight.

 

I don't know if you can argue with either a complete hero worshipper OR a guy who is a total reactionary.

Of course many could trouble Ali, & now human ever would be troubled by nobody. Theoretically-& with drugs & genetic modification maybe before too long-a giant man could well develop the speed & endurance to beat everyone else.

I think Ali wins more often that the others in several matches.

During his prime he would not be grabbing so often even against Johnson. I do not feel prime Frazier wins, Ali was too fast.

Greb, Langford? No, the size difference would be too large. That is part of his advantage over Marciano & even Dempsey (muscle).

Of course the bigger guys could bother him. But Fury, Wilder? Sure certainly by certain points in the '70's, not peak.


If you do a modern day (over 200 lbs)pound for pund, Ali wins.
Question is, can he hang with the biggest skilled SHWs?

I tend to think so, but it is possible not.

 

As opposed to the golden age of heayyweights today?:think

 

Lewis
Holmes
Liston
Dempsey
Johnson
Louis

 

The biggest difference is that contenders fought each other more frequently then than now.

Match up the respective top 10s and each year would win some and lose some. In the case of today's heavyweights vs the late 70's, I believe today's class would beat the majority of their 70's brethren.

Maybe that makes me one of those blasted modernist haters, but it seems much more reasonable for me to believe that than to believe a fighter who unfortunately took the (excessive) punishment Ali did in his own eras 40 years ago would be an untouchable superman today.

People overrate that era due to the cult of personality Ali had, so anyone who landed a jab on him must be great themselves. After all, nobody today could do that.

They underrate today's heavyweight era because a "boring" champ is too dominant- more dominant over an extended stretch than most of us have seen in our lifetimes. More dominant than Ali. Many can't even fathom that given Ali's demigod mystique. So, Wlad gets less credit for shutting guys out than Ali got for winning closer fights or outright losing, and the challengers Wlad dominates get ridiculed.

No shame in that phenomenon- people routinely prefer the not-too-distant past, typically from their own youths, and rag on the present era. Heck, going by ex-boxers themselves, heavyweight boxing's been dying since it started.

 

Vlad wouldnt stand a chance against Ali - Vlad would be in danger of knocked out by any good fighter in the world today if he fought outside Germany without his home town refs - he is a joke and all thess clueless newbies who think hes the greatest ever are an even bigger embarrassment - Pulev shook him big time on a couple of occassions and wouldve beaten if the fight was under American rules with a strong ref - Vlad clueless.and.doesnt know how to fight inside at all and is pretty poor outside too at times in his last couple of fights hes had to resort to reaching and grabbing from a distance!? His reign has basically been a criminal - basically the last 3 or 4 fights he shouldve been disqualified for the embarrassing amount of holding he was doing - Haye would KO him in the states, so would Fury, so would Wilder - he has no chin qnd knows it too and fights anxious - look what Brewster did to.him when we wasnt.allowed to grab grab grab - i dont.care what stage of.his career he.was at no.great heavyweight gets kod by Corrie Sanders in 2 rounds (nearly in.1) and stopped by the likes of Izon.was.it?

 

lol at your theory that the best HWs are between 205 and 225 and no taller than 6.4

I know what you mean, but saying that Lewis and Vlad don't have enough to be considered as good or better is simply discounting the reality of how the HW division has continued to evolve from the time of Rocky is discounting what is real. Heavy weights just got bigger. Foreman was HUGE in his time. Tyson was huge in his time for a guy so short he was nearly 220, that's huge/thick for a super fast guy. Guys with Tysons thickness never had as much speed as Tyson ended up having.

then they just got bigger with enough skill to be successful in lewis and Wlado. Guys Lewis and Wlado's size were never as good all around fighters as those two have been.

Yeah Louis and maybe Rocky give Ali trouble as well and no doubt Holmes would of even in Ali's prime.

However, I say the size and skill of Lewis and Wlado gives Ali lots of trouble.

I don't think either of them would knock Ali out. I think they would beat him via decision.

 

If it makes you happy to believe that ,go with it.:good

 

Teofilo Stevenson

 

Norton and Frazier are inferior athletes to Wlad now?

Even Frazier who harboured almost unstoppable stamina and workrate that he carried thru to 15 long hard , brutal rounds??. Never taking a rest. Never stopped throwing. A fitness level unseen in todays division??
But Wlad is the better athlete , even though he has gassed out numerous times throughout his career and only throws single shots sparingly and needs to rest on his opponents every 10 seconds??. Show me Wlads superior athleticism to Frazier. I want to see it?

Unbelievable what blind Klitschko worship will do to a person.

 

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