Prime Muhammad Ali vs Prime Evander Holyfield

It would play out like Ali/Frazier 3

 

I can definitely see Holyfield beating 70s Ali but not prime Ali, hell no. I just recently took a look at Holyfield vs past it fat Larry Holmes and that fight was somewhat competitive lol. Ali would be far more mobile and a lot quicker trying to pick Holyfield off with mid and long range shots. Holyfield takes 3 rounds. 4 at the very most but Ali just outspeeds him at range and outboxes him

 

I feel you in part as to the Holmes fight...but hey, Holmes handily beat the unbeaten Mercer (who'd just come off winning the WBO belt against undefeated Morrsion). So I'm not sure Holy beating Larry was such a negligible thing.

 

Ali of the 60s would probably be a little too slick and quick but we never saw him against anyone as good as Holy in that time period so that's hard to say definitively.

Ali of the early 70s against Holy is a pick em and I can see Holy winning at least one in a three-fight series. Holyfield is exactly the kind of fighter that would give Ali problems and Ali would have to be at his absolute best to win.

 

Yeah. Ali at his peak wins exactly as you say he does. Nobody's unbeatable but prime Ali was as near as you could get. As far as the 1970s Ali goes - any incarnation up to,and including,Zaire '74 beats Evander convincingly.

 

Mm- Based on the Holmes fight you would have to think Ali would crush him. He just did everything a bit better then Holmes (Where it matters here) honestly, on top of having a crazy will to win and a chin made of something otherworldly I reckon Ali outwills and outboxes Vander the whole way.

 

Morals don't really come into it since steroids didn't become illegal until the 70's.

I think the first recorded usage of steroids by American athletes is the weight lifting team of the 1960 Olympics. Their doctor prescribed it freely and many used more than the recommended amount and suffered kidney injuries as a result.

We can only speculate whether Ali picked up on this or not.

 

I agree with the first half of this post...but I'm not sure about post-FOTC Ali. I keep thinking about the Norton performances in particular...

Holy was closer (though better) to Norton than Foreman.

I'd have to pick Holy to beat post-FOTC Ali, though up until 1975 it would be very close imo.

 

Ali easy UD.

 

I think Holy against old Holmes gives us a clue. Holy was too open for that right for my liking. Holmes had success with it, and no HW had a faster and more accurate right than prime Ali.

 

I was not there to see it but Muhammad Ali had a thin body, very lean and by the way a lot of natural talent. Ali was a 175 lb fighter, but it is possible that the heavyweights indulged in that practice, who knows?

 

I would be very surprised if it had trickled down to boxing already since boxers back then was very suspicious of lifting weights. It seems that steroids had spread into track and field by the 1968 Olympics, but in 1960 it was probably still limited to weight lifting. When it came into boxing, which is more endurance based than both weight lifting and track and field and the benefits of steroids probably wouldn't be quite as evident is hard to say.

 

You are probably right, as they say nowadays, sports had evolved by even 1968 standards.

 

By the late 60's/early 70's steroids had spread into a range of sports and somewhere around there you'd think that boxers would also pick up on it. It's from the early/mid 70's that HWs started to continouosly increase in lean weight and it's a bit hard to believe that there's no relation between the two.

 

I know that it is a fictional movie but Rocky 4 in 1985, against the Soviet born Drago brought awareness to those practices, they show him being injected with Steroids.