Is Ali's size a coincidence?

Ali would never have been able to compete with the Dustin Nichols' of this world. Someone to match his skills who is also roughly three times his size.

 

Ali was 6'2". Thus Too small for the modern shw division.

 

Of course it isn't a coincidence.
Just like quite a large portion of the ATG's having a (very) long reach for their weightclass in their era isn't a coincidence either.

Ken Norton was one of the very few that clearly outreached Aliat the time, and look what happened there.

 

Out of curiousity, I took a look at the top 5 from 1980 to 2017. I chose 1980 as a starting point since it was after Ali retired and around the time that modern superheavies became more common. Of the 60 champions or contenders to make it into the top 5 in that time only 19 have been bigger than Ali. 41 have been his size or smaller. Hence, more often than not the top five is 2/1 smaller heavyweights. Although, I will confess that right at this particular moment the only top 5 heavy smaller than Ali is Povetkin.

Much of the last 40 years seems to show a decent track record of Ali sized fighters beating top 5 superheavies. Larry Holmes beating Gerry Cooney, James Smith, Carl Williams. Michael Spinks beating Cooney. Mike Tyson beating James Smith, Tony Tucker, Andrew Golota. Evander Holyfield beating Riddick Bowe. Rahman beating Lewis and Sanders. Oliver McCall beating Lewis. Lamon Brewster beating Wlad. I guess we could throw David Haye and Ruslan Chagaev beating Valuev into the more recent examples. Eddie Chambers beating Alexander Dimitrenko. Alexander Povetkin over Kubrat Pulev.

6'3" which is where I make the cut off. 6'4" I consider superheavy. Thus, Foreman is a superheavy and Ali is a heavy.

 

Povetkin is bigger in size than Ali on average. Povetkin also has a more appropriate attribute required to compete in the modern super heavyweight era which Ali doesn't (punching power). Yet, he's still been second best to the number 1 elite Super Heavyweights in the recent eras that he's competed in. Such as being second best to Wladimir Klitschko and Anthony Joshua (if that fight happens).

 

You should be banned for making posts like this.

 

What will you say about that:

Usyk beat the s*** out of all elite amateur SHWs he fought in WSB (while weighing under 210 lbs).

Small HW Nistor stopped SHW Joshua in amateurs?

Doesn't it ruin your theory of 'elite small HWs' not being able to even be competitive against elite SHWs?

 

Need to ask @BlizzyBlizz's mom.

 

Modern training methods (legal and illegal) are always conveniently sidelined when making era vs era comparisons. Ali fighting in 2018 would easily be 20llbs heavier, more explosive, more powerful and no less quick. He would have better stamina and punch resistance.

Look at any modern HW and put them in a 60s/70s training context and the reverse effect should not be ignored. It amazes me people use physicality to dismiss past ATGs but ignore the time-machine protocol.

 

Mike Tyson was smaller than his opponents. And he wasnt the hardest pure puncher either.

 

Yeah this is true. Plus he may very well be taller too. We've seen heights overall increase in most modern developed countries as food availability and nutrition has become better, the only places in the world that hasn't happened is in poor 3rd world countries where getting enough to eat is still a big problem.

Ali raised in the modern era might very well be a 6'4-6'5" 230lbs plus heavyweight.

 

Funny you mentioned height, as that crossed my mind too. I guess it's hard to establish this as a measurable fact though. But we can say for sure as a physical specimen Ali would have been a very different proposition in 2018 compared to 1974. As would Joshua if he were shape-shafted back 50 years. Haye might have struggled to be more than 200llbs. Etc, etc.

 

Excellent post

 

Well forgive my memory, I grew up with Cassius Clay and later Ali he was my idol as a teenager and I watched him fight whenever I could. At the time, the view was that after he returned he wasn't at his best. I think he was a different fighter in many ways. He was still the greatest.

 

Lewis, Bowe and Vitali also never beat a top 5 HW who was BOTH taller and heavier than them.