An Ingo-Floyd 1/Clay-Cooper 1 poser

Like a lot of the myths about Muhammad Ali, you only have to watch the film to see this isn't true. He never went walking off, he briefly stood up, then sat down again.

Most likely he just wanted to stand between rounds as he often did. If you've seen the complete film, you know he also stood for a large part of the previous interval.

 

Clay didn't know where the hell he was. That bell went just when you want a bell to gnly Smelling salts and the full minute rest brought him round. So much worked out for Ali. It was almost supernatural.

It just was not the natural order of things for Henry to win that fight, almost like history itself prevented it from happening. He needed that bell.. and he got that bell. But what drama! It's the stuff of legend the way Clay turned it around the next round. It was the making of him.

A knockout loss did not effect the Joe Louis legacy so it would not effect the Ali legacy unless he came out as a black Muslim before winning the title. That would have stopped everything.

 

I think Ingo was good enough to be a world champion that one year. Some fighters are destined to be champion. Given the opportunity, within the right window of career timing, I believe the chosen ones are going to produce the goods even in impossible circumstances.

So I think Ingo still wins first time around. Because he was good enough.

Floyd made it to champion but was considered a kind of cheese champion without the Ingo rivalry. Winning the Ingo trilogy redeemed Floyd enough to achieve a more genuine stature but he had to lose to do so and Ingo was good enough to beat him. The machen shocker proved it.

It's like Jack Johnson being black balled, he was destined to finally get there and he did.

That's why the Braddock story was so remarkable, he already had his window of opportunity at light heavyweight and failed...but after floating around the veteran fringe circuit he still had enough left to take advantage of an impossibly lucky break.

 

Yes, Angelo made him sit back down. Which tells you nothing about the reason Ali stood up in the first place. You're actually telling me that you're going to watch the film and stick by your claim that he went "walking to...nowhere"?

I've been watching boxing for a long time and I have never seen a dazed fighter insist on getting up off his stool and going for a walk. It doesn't happen.

 

This is revisionism at its finest. Just watch what actually happened. Clay ( as he was called at the time ) didn't try to walk anywhere. He stood up, and Angelo Dundee sat him back down.

[url]https://youtu.be/Frn3rTj5DOY?t=490[/url]

I think you are swayed by Harry Carpenters wishful thinking.

As that American writer said Clay was clowning with Enery trying to stretch the fight out to his round 5 prediction. And sure enough in a mere few seconds over 1 minute he fulfilled his prediction.

 

clay was destined to be world champion so it was his destiny to get out of that situation, and he did by incredible set of freak circumstances. The bell, the extra moments rest, the smelling salts and Henry already having a cut. But the bell, the extra moment rest and the smelling salts did not make Clay become a better fighter. It did not make him know what to do when the fight started again, that was all down to him on his own. Clay turned that fight around and that was kind of amazing. It was the making of Muhammad Ali right there.

There's no getting away from that Clay was all but knocked out. You can't credit clay for getting out of that without accepting the serious trouble he was in.

It's revisionist to say clay was in control of the situation or that he was clowning. He was a green kid being taught a lesson, clay even seemed tired. Cooper was putting a lot of heat on him. Gave him a nose bleed in the first round, roughed him up. Took him to school. Have you even scored the completed rounds??