I do remember this fight because they were poking fun at Buster by playing some songs to him during the telecast on ABC'S Wide World Of Sports, Howard Cosell was the commentator for the delayed telecast.
When he chose to plant and crank that right, he had very good power. He was a very big, very fast twitch man. But he could do something no other heavy could up to that time, using blinding speed of hand and foot to use stinging volume, and he chose that manner to dispatch his opponents. Makes sense. Don't play down your opponents.
No. Ali lacked boxing fundamentals. He relied on his speed and reflexes to avoid punches. When those faded, he started getting hit. So for me someone that relies on physical attributes does not have proper defense. The fact that Ali lacked fundamentals was obvious. That's why he was vulnerable to the left hook throughout his career.
Is this on YouTube? Must be. I'd be curious as to what songs they were playing. Poor guy. I read an interview with him - I think it was in the Sports Illustrated story that came out in around 1980 that interviewed Ali's opponents - where he was really hard on himself for being "lazy" if I recall correctly. I think Jerry Quarry took Buster's heart away from the game. Here Mathis was riding on a career high in impressively beating George Chuvalo, then a month and a half later Quarry beats him decisively. Then he didn't fight for two and a half years until he met Ali. Another year goes by and he beats undefeated Humphrey McBride for (sort of) a belt, then 24 days later he meets Ron Lyle, who takes him out in 2 and ends his boxing career. Anyway, to answer the question posed in this thread, I'll go with Joe Louis.
Holmes got caught by too many right hands, even Shavers caugt him flush without setting up the right hand and Snipes dropped him, Snipes was not a world class heavy at all.
After some thinking, came up with Holmes, strange thing is, when it comes to the greatest, I always have Ali as my number one, and really dont give Holmes a lot of consideration ( which is wrong ) he had a better Jab, well if not better, then certainly harder for my money, his chin stands up against Ali,s, on balance, he had a more hurtful right , just, their hearts were not too dissimilar, yea, got me in a pickle, have I overrated Ali ( is that poss ? ) and maybe as we all do unjustly underrate Holmes.