He is pretty much the most difficult to stop across the board. He had that knack of not showing how bad he may have been hurt and an iron will.
Yeah, and he always had the option to fight a retreating fight, even if he would lose the decision. Tyson, who had a great chin, didn't have that option for example. Ali, Holmes and Holy were very hard to ko since they didn't give that many clear shots, and when they did they all had amazing recuperative powers. Prime Ali might have been the hardest to stop, though, because of that blinding speed. And now it's just to count the seconds before Cooper's name pops up....
Lets be honest here: Beside past-it Liston in two dubious showdowns, 60s Ali had a weight, height, range and speed advantage over the likes of London, Cooper, Mildenberger, Folley and Patterson etc. who would prob never fight at HW in the 90s. He might even had a power advantage against some. Tyson should be the textbook example to drop him, but a good punch from Lewis, Wlad, Bowe, Tua, Wilder, AJ and maybe some more would put the Greatest on the floor too. The thing with Ali is he was slippery as fuk. Compared to Usyk he imo moved more efficient, beeing less prone to body punches for example. On the other hand, if some of the real big fellows from 90s onwards tried to fight him with all information available, some might really just go all-in and walk into his punches trading like 1 : 4 with all effort to land anything, in other words might put enormous pressure on him, knowing he was pretty feather fisted for higher weight standards. So yes, I believe he could be put on his ass. Question is would it happen to a 100% focused no toying Ali.
There we go with that story again. a) It took him (or lets say he "carried" them) 12 rounds for Patterson. Another 12 for Mildenberger. 15 for Terell und Chuvalo (hard mandible). 7 rounds for Folley and another 6 for Cooper beeing stopped by a cut vs. b) two quick stoppages in Brian London and the aging fellow who carried a bullet. If Ali wanted a victory against anything above the level of a) he´d need to go for a decision. That includes Tyson for my understanding. You know, that RBV thing, better not trigger them ^^
Maybe a few of the HW champs ( Lewis, Tyson, Louis, spring to mind ) would have the power to drop Ali, but to drop him is not to stop him !! keep well.
It’s rather hard to imagine given the punches he took from foreman and Shavers among others. But seeing as how he is after all “ human”, I don’t think it’s impossible. I’m guessing the punch needed to do the trick would be a solid left hook given that this was his biggest weakness.
I don´t think we need to go into a discussion on the Zaire KO8 as any sort of reference of the "power of Muhammad Ali". Half of that stoppage was Foreman himself, another 20 % was Africa and maybe 30 % of that was Alis right hands.