I think the peaking version of Muhammad around 1966-67 with his superior speed and movement could have outpointed Larry to a close decision. The still excellent version of Ali in the early to mid 70's is a very close fight and I'm not sure who wins that one. Might lean towards Holmes to barely take it.
Honestly, toss-up. Holmes in my opinion is an absolute beast H2H, and fairly underrated. Ali has better foot-work and handspeed, but Holmes is more powerful and fundamentally sound. His jab is a bit better too, longer and snappier. Stamina, ring intelligence and chin are all comparable.
yes this match up is such a toss up,,,,Holmes is a bit underrated but then maybe a young Clay could out point a prime Holmes, one of the most classic virtual match ups ever.
It'd be a mirror match. You know how in fighting games, you fight a clone of yourself? It'd be like that.
Holmes would have the advantage here...He was the better sparrer of the two and knew his weaknesses.A jab is all you needed really to take Ali out of his game and Holmes had the better one.He could also pick of shots then throw a jab,Ali never did this.Meaning holmes would counter punch him almost always.Its a close fight but I have to think holmes being the more technical harder puncher,and I would say more ring generalship has enough points covered here.Holmes by decision. Muhammed didn't fight many tall good jabbers with decent defense..Norton was one of them and look what happened there.If they fought 5 time I do think Ali can steal 2.
I think the footwork of Ali gets him the win... on points obviously. Any version of Ali from 70/75 gets out jabbed and beat... again on points.
Actually it is,becaue 60's ali defense was not as good or physically a stronger puncher.He also fought tougher guys in the 70's.Ali of 70's wopuld never have had difficulty with the chuvalos or coopers.Its the same thing as taking the 42 year old holmes who beat and clowned Mercer vs the 85 holmes who lost to spinks...i'll take 42 yr old holmes.
Pre exile Ali has too much speed and elusiveness for Holmes. Easy UD. You can always tell the Ali haters on these threads because they only ever want to talk about the post exile version. Ironically you can almost always tell their age group as well, because those very same fools will scream and shout about Tyson's lay off affecting him.