Why was Ali so much slower after the hiatus?

Even when in excellent condition, he did not have near the stamina to have a 15 round, dancing, high workrate fight anymore.
His footwork & speed was way reduced.
Given all of his experience even before exile, Olympic & especially extensive amateur before turning pro + his physical gifrs, he clearly was best from 1964-1967.

Like Foreman in his comeback, the extra wisdom (& in his case stamina) could not compensate in absolute terms for all he had lost.

 

At the start of FOTC you can hear the announcer saying Ali weight was "redistributed".
His upper body had more muscle, his legs along with their speed & bounce must have lost muscle.

Just weight alone will not tell you if someone got stronger-they could have lost body fat & gained muscle (Ali did not overall), or train specific muscles & sometimes get a measure stronger via muscular efficiency, without adding more muscle weight.

 

He probably realized that dancing around for 15 rounds was a waste of energy.

 

I don't think Ali's upper body looked more muscular. He looked a bit softer to me, is all.

And he trained the same way as far as I know.

 

Yeah, getting beaten up on the ropes by Frazier was a much better use of energy.

 

Frazier was the best fighter he ever met. And when he beat him, he chose his spots and beat him to the punch. He didn't run around the ring.

 

I agree he looked a bit softer, but that would disguide more muscle.
In part the way fights were filmed seems to have changed.
The announcer's observation dovetailed with how strong he often seemed in the clinch.
I do not know if he trained diferently-sometimes when the body matures, though other things especially speed go early, strength can rise up to certain ages...hence the expression "old man strength", especially in weightlifting & wrestling.

 

It is pretty easy, and fun, to move around the ring against an opponent that follows you. It takes a lot more energy to do it against a guy that knows how to cut the ring because you end up taking 3 or 4 steps to his one.
I don't believe that any version of Ali could move enough to stay away from Joe Frazier for 45 minutes.

 

Not when you've only trained seriously for 6 of the last 48 months. Steroids is the only possible way I can see for him to gain, or even regain, his strength in that period and I think he'd added more lean mass if he was on them.

 

No, and he lost. When he moved more in the rematch he won. So the movement didn't seem like such a bad idea after all.

 

I do personally after watching their second fight. But I think his game plan in FOTC would have worked to if he had the stamina he had four years earlier, I think he would have stopped Frazier.

Are there any other fighters that you feel were the same after long lay-offs, or only Ali? Dempsey, Louis, Tyson, anyone? Only Ali?

 

Excellent point! People like Dempsey, and Tyson are recognized as having lost a step after their inactivity, but miraculously Ali was unaffected after his own 3 year lay-off.

 

I would say Patterson was faster personally speaking, but I get your point.

 

Frazier is my favorite fighter but I can't see him beating a peak Muhammad Ali. Scorecards were 8-6, 9-6, and 11-4 in their first fight when Ali was coming off a 4 year lay-off, and was not quite the same fighter he was pre-exile (though still a very good fighter of course). Had Ali won a mere extra two rounds, he would've won. Is it really that unreasonable, to think a younger, faster, Ali with better stamina, wins another 2 rounds?

 

To me it's simple, he was easier to hit post exile. Yeah he was tougher, more resilient, stronger and obviously smart however he had to be simply because he wasn't physically the same pre exile.