How do you think The Greatest goes on, in the 1990 s? One of the best eras (imo) apart from the 70 s, how s Muhammad fare against the likes of Holyfield, Lewis, Bowe, etc?
If a prime or very good version of Muhammad Ali is matched with the best of the 90’s then there’s a very real possibility that he’d beat all of them.
Lennox Lewis didn’t like a jabber but neither did Muhammad Ali that would be interesting. I’d favour Lennox, Evander Holyfield would have had been a bobble head respectfully it’s just he couldn’t get away from a jab. Eddie Futch might teach Riddick Bowe some tricks here but I don’t know if he’d capture a win. The fights of the 90s I’d like to have seen would be against Vitali Klitschko, Frank Bruno and Buster Douglas. I think “Bus” and the “Doctor Ironfist” would’ve been highly obnoxious bouts for “The Greatest” Frank Bruno had a good jab but I don’t think he’d have a great chance of winning I just like him.
I’ll add that Andrew Golota against Muhammad Ali might be the greatest disparity between two fighters mental resilience at heavyweight ever but if the polish contender could hold himself together he could do much better then there comparative records would suggest.
Bruno vs Ali would be a lol of a fight. His size and jab may trouble Ali but Ali soundly outboxes him or even gets a late round stoppage with Bruno taking too many unanswered punches.
Ali is firm favourite over Holyfield and Tyson Against Bowe it would be 60/40 in Alis favour and Lewis would be 55/45 favourite the younger less cautious Lewis might pose a better challenge than the older version as Ali isn’t knocking him out so a more exciting and action packed fight might favour the bigger Lennox Some other interesting fights for Ali would be against Morrison, Moorer and Tokyo Douglas
1966-67 Muhammad would beat them all. I would also make the 1972-74 incarnation favourite to do so provided that he's in shape and focused. Would obviously be closer.
The thing is with these type of threads people are a bit unrealistic. In a fantasy scenario with a time machine pitting only a peak Ali with no wear and tear over a 10 year period against all these opposition does Ali win ? possibly. But that's not a realistic scenario if Ali was consistently fighting bigger men adding onto all the wear and tear over the years then Ali probably picks up 1 or 2 losses along the way. I don't think any Heavyweight in history could go undefeated against the likes of Bowe, Lewis, Tyson, Holyfield, Moorer, Foreman, Golota, Ruddock, Mercer, etc.
When you have "Fantasy Fights"...you put each fighter in their prime to do battle with each other...Ali became a "punching bag" in the 1970's...pick the Ali from 1963 to 1967...
Lewis & Bowe could make it interesting. No one else if we’re talking 60’s Ali. Bowe is especially intriguing though. A big man with a phenomenal inside game, who could hit & go twelve hard rounds.
