That certain HW was pummeled all night long, and went down after a 4-5 punch combo trown by a proper HW size wise Ali was sent into dream world by a small HW (who'd be a cruiser now), with a single punch
I think the ali that beat liston in Miami, with all the physical skills intact, plus having his mind pumped full of divine destiny for him to be the champ by the nation of Islam, was h2h peak Ali. I hear what people are saying about experience and ring IQ in 70s ali, but I think 60s ali seemed plenty relaxed and controlled in there. A lot of 70d ali ring IQ was about stealing rounds and tying up, which he didn't need to so in his prime when he really dazzled.
Depends on who you ask. Ali rained over a dozen unanswered shots, at least half a dozen got through. Lyle was knocked across the ring twice. I think the slaughter could have conceivably gone on much longer, but why when Lyle wouldn't respond?
That's how boxers get mentally messed up. The Bowe-Golota fights are examples. One thing a ref knows is that when a man has taken over a dozen consecutive shots, nearly half landing on the head and/or body, without retaliating, it's time to close the show. Lyle was staggered across the ring...twice. He wouldn't fire back. Sounds like you're espousing cruelty just to prove a point. I've read better arguments from you here.
But who says he's supposed to fire back ?! Perhaps he was waiting for Ali to get tired, or perhaps he was just trying to survive the shots, then regroup. I agree with stopping it, but only when boxers can no longer defends themselves and are helpless. If they still hold their hands up, they are not helpless.
It's quite possible he was waiting. But he kind of did the same thing against Foreman, eventually he just went down. I really just didn't see much difference when he was in the corner, except Ali might have landed more shots. I remember a somewhat similar conundrum happened in Holmes vs. LeDoux. LeDoux had been really hurt earlier and not really mounted much of an offense after that, but still complained he was waiting for Larry to punch himself out. Like I said, it's possible that is what Lyle was doing, but to me it didn't look like that at the time of the stoppage. He looked unable to respond, and kept getting hit.