Thrilla in Manila

That wasn't even in Ali's mind as he was kneeling on the floor talking to Don Dunphy afterwards. He was talking about rematching Norton and Foreman. He defended against Coopman in February 1976, Young at the end of April, then did whip himself into the best shape he was in for any title defense of his second reign by coming in at 220 for Dunn after the Young scare, just three and a half weeks later.

Take away the Inoki farce, he started out 1976 overweight and not in great shape for Coopman at 226, but three title defenses in four months is still a blistering pace by the standards of any era. Also, while he gets a lot of stick for his difficulties with Norton, let's not forget to credit him for not ducking Ken either. Without what Inoki did to his legs to get him hospitalized, the outcome of Ali-Norton III might not be so controversial.

Norton certainly felt the pressure of attempting to succeed Ali as WBC Champion. When he was awarded that belt, he expressed the intention of defending it every month and a half.

Foreman blew his chance at such a rematch by not getting back on the horse quickly after Kinshasa, looked extremely

 

What a surprise, once again, WRONG!

 

Very true. Boxing 101. If you ever watched the fight on YouTube you will hear it being fully discussed. I am more and more convinced you start discussions of bouts you never bothered to watch yourself. You come across as someone with mental problems.

 

The weigh in was the SATURDAY before the fight. It was actually four days earlier, unlike the five you claimed.

 

YOU stated Ali was out of shape and that his weight was proof of this. The point is that the weigh in was way in advance of fight time which is when fighters shed an additional 5-8 pounds. Ali was in great shape for this fight. If you ever watched this bout, and you haven't, Ali himself states he was in great condition for the fight and without this conditioning "he would have definitely lost".

 

Ali also said he was in great condition for the Holmes fight. :yep

 

Silly and ignorant comment.

 

I think he was in decent shape. His body looked pretty tight. He was able to maintain a high punch output into the championship rounds.

Conversely, a few months later he looked out of shape against Jimmy Young.

 

Concentrating on meaningless, trivial details like this make you look stupid.

 

Why wouldn't you? You always seem to disagree with my opinion...

 

Ok, but I do not. Sometimes you get it right. Not here though.

You could tell when Ali was not in shape. He was in shape. He was not going to take it easy against Joe regardless of what he expected.
Smoke took his 0.
Joe still called him Clay when most people where begining to call Mister Ali.

You don't pull off what Ali did in the 13th if you are not in shape.

 

Ali was definitely not as good as he normally was. He thought Frazier was washed up and ended up rarely training.

 

Wanna know what makes you look stupid? Calling people out, and claiming to have exposed them, then come to realize that you're wrong, then disappear when requested to apologize. :yep

 

Ali was older. You have already said that. My post explained why you are wrong and Ali was in shape. He may have expected less resistance but he came in shape.

 

Ali trained for months prior to flying to Manila. His training camp was in PA a few hours drive from where I lived in NJ. At the time a local hwt from my town was one of Ali's sparring partners and was living and training at Ali's camp. I visited him several times during his time there and not only did I watch Ali train but I was told by my friend that Ali was training very hard for his third bout with Frazier. Once he went to Manila things became murky with his girlfriend being there and his wife showing up unannounced. That did not change the fact that his preparation while in the states was excellent.