NY Times article after the Ali vs Evangelista fight

Larry had beaten nobody of note really.

But I think he would have outpointed Ali in late 77

Prime for prime Ali dances circles around Holmes for an easy UD

 

"Dancing" is not the same as "fighting"...at least it shouldn't be...

 

And also not to have at least ONE person close enough to him not to be a yes man and duly highlight the parasitic hangers on around him.

**** me, even Dundee should’ve had a word - perhaps some did but Ali didn’t listen, I wouldn’t know.

 

In ‘77 Holmes could win the first 14 rounds but “blow” the fight by taking it too easy in the 15th round - UD to Ali.

The Magician pulls it out again. Ali builds points by merely dancing around and orbiting Larry - while yelling “Catch me if you can, Peanut Head!” Punches landed and/or their actual quality don’t come into it.

Post fight, due to his election to take it easy for just the ONE round, Larry’s Ring IQ is heavily questioned.

You’ve got to TAKE the title from the Champ - forget the previous 14 rounds - by not properly fighting in the 15th and final round - Larry clearly didn’t “take” the title and by association, he didn’t want it enough.

Ali’s “Alley” is shaved down to just one Championship round - the most important round - the 15th - and that is surely enough.

In all seriousness, Larry probably gets past Ali in ‘77 - but as opposed to the fight in 1980, Ali obviously gives a far better hint as to how the fight might’ve gone in a prime vs prime scenario.

Ali was already well on the slide but the rate of decline accelerated even more AFTER the Shavers fight.

By 78 Ali appeared that much weaker and awkward in his executions - you could detect that his balance was already, literally compromised. He should not have been in the ring.

 

Great post, Pugguy. Yup, Ali only had to rally for one round to pull out a decision. In the Shavers fight he only had to rally for HALF a round.

Personally, I think Evangelista outpointed him.

 

That has been my take since the fight happened. Ali did nothing. Shoeshined with no punches landing on the guy. The only landed punches were by Evangelista.

But nobody and I mean nobody agreed.

 

If you look at Precious hard enough she looks a little like Zoe Kravitz.

 

Now that is precious!

Like one of those magic eye pictures where they hide a 3 D image inside a repetitive 2 D pattern?

I don’t know if I could look at Precious long enough to see the preferred vision before passing out.

If Zoe did eventually appear to me I’d have to conclude that Precious had eaten her.

 

I just rewatched Leon vs Evangelista. Not to overrate it’s but it wasn’t a bad little dust up. Leon could whip out a decent punch at times.

 

I think you two are right. I watched the fight today and Evangelista seems to have won. Early in the fight, Cosell blamed Ali for not trying/playing and thought that Ali could end the fight when he wanted. Later, when it became obvious that Ali could not knockout or dominate AE, Cosell blamed it on Ali's age (35). In Cosell's opinion (and the judges), Ali still easily won the fight, but AE landed most of the effective punches and forced the fight. The ref was constantly telling Ali to stop holding Evangelista, probably every round but he never took a point from Ali. Evangelista stayed relatively busy and made Ali work more than Ali wanted.

Ali was fatigued, probably from the body punches AE landed whenever AE got close and before Ali would grab him. There was no round that Ali won convincingly. As zadfrak mentioned, "the only landed punches were from Evangelista." Ali's brother, Rahman came to ringside and told Ali that he was "blowing it." If Ali had not been boxing's "cash cow" and had been just another fighter he probably would have lost the decision.

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Hesisenberg Effect.

 

You say Ali didn’t win any round convincingly? Go watch the 10th.

If you think Alfredo deserved the decision, fine, but to act like Ali didn’t win that round doesn’t enhance the credibility of your opinion.

 

Why did UPI, AP, the NYT, and every single poster at Eye On The Ring score it for Ali? Were they all biased? Every single one of them? It's amazing what two score and seven years of hindsight will do.

 

In retrospective it is painfull to think that Ali was still going to keep fighting four more years ... what a disaster.

 

That fight, among others. Never lost a single point in his second fight with Frazier. He should have been kicked out of the ring for his, “tactics.”