Who stand the best chance against a prime Ali?

Joe Frazier

 

Idk he'd be Ali's toughest opponent, but it would have been curious to see how he handled Riddick Bowe.

 

I don't think anyone beats him, give him trouble maybe : Holmes/ Lewis/ Louis.

 

The same way he handled most big punching HWs at that time, he would have moved and danced all of the fight, only stopping to pepper them with fast, accurate, combos, then back to movement, 65/67 fighter would have been a nightmare for any HW in history IMO.
Stay safe William.

 

Lennox

 

Having recently re-watched the FOTC, that fight wasn't even close. Frazier beat the hell out of Ali in that fight. If you could pull Frazier from that night, in the shape he was, as filled with pure rage as he was, I give him the best shot of beating peak Ali.

If I can't use that version of Frazier, oh man, I don't know. I can think of men who would give him a rough night (Lewis, Louis, Vitali, Tyson, Holmes, etc) but none who I'd bet on.

The ONLY way I'd bet on someone over him would be if I could send in peak Tyson, with Ali having zero foreknowledge of Tyson. No film, no scouting reports, not even a "think Patterson with power like Liston". Nothing.

 

Some people Ali wasn't the same anymore in the 1st Frazier fight, after his lay off and was ring rusty. Both are true even though Ali did have two good warm up fights against top contenders like Quarry, Bonavena.

But on the flip side you could say Frazier was never the same after the 1st Ali fight, I think if you could pit the Frazier of FOTC vs a prime Ali, I still think Frazier would give him Ali absolute hell.

As for the other candidates who could beat Ali......

Lewis
Holmes
Vitali
Wladimir
Tyson
Usyk ? Would be interesting to see Ali vs a world class Southpaw.

 

Ali was an extremely flawed fighter. The holes he had in his game couldn’t be plugged by youth like everyone seems to think. Louis, Wlad and Lewis would kill him, they’d be his worst nightmare and Tyson would also KOs Muhammad in my opinion but that fight is rough. Marciano is 50-50 to me and obviously Frazier already did the deed.

 

hehe i want to ask you guys, if Patterson and Ali fought at LHW who would win?

 

Zero foreknowledge of Mike Tyson would be a scary thing. What a great thought. Well done.

 

well i guess i should've implied it be a very green and young patterson against an Olympian ali before he turned pro to even it a little

 

FOTC Frazier, Holmes, Louis for sure imo. The Holyfield who fought Bowe that first time wouldn't have been easy.

Marciano isn't entirely out of the question imo, possibly Steward-era Lewis.

Unpopular idea: the Mike Weaver who fought Larry Holmes wouldn't have been particularly easy, though I imagine Ali would have ultimately stopped him.