Is there anyone who could school 67 Ali?

Chris byrd

 

I am not being uber-vain or schizo in replying to myself-I noticed a typo, & to ensure the correction is seen, I responded like this to say Ali alleged his jab was timed at 2/100ths of a second, not 1/100th.
Unless I recall incorrectly & he said something crazy such as 2/1000s of a second!

 

Ali-Mildenberer was scored 4-3-1 in non-KD rounds after 11 rounds by two of the three official judges, 154-144 Ali in punches landed out of 612-538 thrown according to Compubox. Ali was fortunate that Mildenberger had a relatively weak chin, among other obvious deficiencies.

In 2x title challenger Chisora's next fight most thought he was robbed against former titlist Parker. He was very much in or around his prime when he fought Usyk and was 61 lbs heavier than Mildenberger, with a lot more power and durability. Two of the judges had it 7-5 Usyk but Compubox had it 194-139 Usyk.

My point isn't purely about the competitiveness of Ali-Mildenberger though, it relates to a stylistic matchup. Ali struggled with the southpaw stance of Mildenberger, so it stands to reason that a vastly superior southpaw (amateur pedigree, pro record and accomplishments, size, output, offensive ability, chin, modern film and "nutritional" advantages) would have given Ali far more problems and possibly shut him out or stopped him.

 

He was, by a southpaw called Kent Green:

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/kent-green-i-knocked-cassius-clay-out.409504/

 

I'd hardly be championing Pepe's stuff regarding Ali to put it mildly.

He was stopped not knocked out clean.

 

If you get banjoed by a left hook and need illegal cornerwork to dig you out, it's life and death. Compubox website is not functional now but I also remember the landed punch stats from Ali-Cooper as being something like 80-60.

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"Ali leading 7-3-1"

7-3-1 minus 3 Ali KD's is 4-3-1. Compubox stats are 154-144 landed.

 

https://boxrec.com/en/box-am/31293

 

"TKO"

 

"I didn't gloss over them."

You didn't even mention them.

"or anyone have to do with Ali in his prime getting schooled by someone?"

Unless Ali was levels above Tyson or Foreman or Holyfield or Wlad, those great fighters getting schooled establishes that great fighters like Ali are not immune from schoolings.

"Ali never got schooled even when he was way past his prime (other than the Holmes disaster"

Ali never fought a southpaw who was 6'3, 220 lbs and P4P No.1, from 50+ years in the future. The best southpaw he ever fought by a country mile was Mildenberger, who was very competitive with prime Ali in terms of punches landed and non-KD rounds scoring. Ali also never fought a 6'5+, athletic, one-punch KO artist and P4P No.2, with a left hook that would make Cooper's and Frazier's seem middleweight-esque by comparison.

"beating an unmotivated old fighter"

Holyfield (who would beat Rahman 3+ years and 5 punishing wars later) was "unmotivated" in the Lennox Lewis undisputed fight? We're into bizarre excuse territory.

"I said he was past his prime"

You didn't just just say Wlad was "past prime" (omitting that Fury was fighting away, as the B-side and relatively inexperienced, in his world title debut), you've said that he was on par with the Byrd version of Holyfield, who was older than Wlad at 40+ and on a poor run, having gone 1-1-1 with Ruiz and by most accounts lost both Lewis fights. Majority opinion never determines truth so I don't care about polls but the idea that Holyfield from the Byrd fight and Wlad from the Fury fight were on par is an opinion shared basically by no one.

"Are you seriously comparing a 40 year old fighter to his 20 year old self?"

Why not? The 40 year old version may be far better than the 20 year old. Look at Wlad in his 20's: KO'd by Puritty, Sanders and Brewster, still not out of the woods at 29 against Peter 1. We know of athletes in other sports who had their best ever season or event at 40, so I'm not going to write off 36 or 39 in boxing, especially when the current average age of the heavyweight top 5 is 35. I can name more than a dozen heavyweights (mostly modern) who were better at 35+ than they were at 25.

 

So Ali-Mildenberger is competitive if you ignore Mildenberger's three worst rounds? Never seen anyone try that one before.

 

That guy doing the Cooper thing, seems to be watching a highlights video of the fight, then claiming the rounds are cut short.

 

Oddly enough, to ‘school’ a ‘67 Ali it’s going to have to be a technical boxer, probably a southpaw and someone with some special attributes.

I don’t think Byrd has it, but someone like a Yuri Vaulin IF they were quicker, had a better / faster s/paw jab, good lateral movement / chin / stamina etc. so not him, but that mould of someone who could spoil Ali’s rhythm and offense and outjab him. It’d be an ugly fight.

Probably be the last fighter you’d expect.

 

Glen Kelly who fought Roy Jones junior was told "he's a man like you, two arms two legs" just like Byrd and Ali comparison. Speed equals both of them. Power: Ali. Elusiveness: Byrd, ability to take a punch: both guys shown this many times over. Size? Similiar, stance: righty for Ali, southpaw Byrd. The question is how does Byrd fight versus an even sized moderate heavyweight. And can Ali pull off that fooling depth perception by lunging in and out. Remember Byrd likes to box on the back foot too, leaning back hands up weight behind him waiting for the punch, matter of a fact evading of the punch. Could Byrd walk down and speedbox Ali or would Ali's reflexes be too much. Also who wins if it comes down to grit like a chin hitting contest?

 

Chris Bryd was an extremely accomplished fighter who is badly underrated.However,as you referred to
at the end of your post Ali's reflexes would be too much for Chris.Plus Ali had even more speed than Byrd.
This is no dismissive judgement on Chris,he really was an excellent fighter but Muhammad Ali simply
has too many advantages in this fight.

 

How do you award a round to a boxer who gets knocked down?