Did any fighter in history was able to absorb body shots better than Ali

Hmmm... Leonard and Duràn did take a ton of body punches at some point,yet they managed to recover, Hearns never really recover well from those body shots, Marvin was tough too,he ate shots from Mugabi and Roldan like a 5 piece meal.

 

I don't think so. Not even in the lower divisions that i have seen. Ali took a hell of a body shot.

 

Ken Norton made a comment on this in his book. He said hitting Ali in the body was like hitting a brick wall. It didn’t budge him, didn’t seem to have any effect.

(except in one of their fights, Norton cracks Ali so hard to the body at one point that it actually buckles him for a second, guess Norton wasn’t thinking of that when he was writing)

 

It was the third one in the early rounds, rewatched the trilogy one month ago, but yeah, Alì recuperative powers were otherworldly

 

I saw Norton in their third fight land a liver shot that made Ali bend over, but he quickly recovered. That seems more like pain tolerance than abdominal resistance.

 

David Izon and Ray Mercer took a great shot to the body.

 

Nobody I have ever seen took a better body shot than Muhammad Ali.

 

I don't know if anyone's ever mentioned it, but has anyone in this thread ever been punched in the guts and watched the way Ali got hammered to the body and not assumed, contrary to his aura of cool, that he absolutely had to be...What's the polite way to say this? Off-gassing like a jar of sauerkraut getting burped?

 

Unfortunately, with the passage of time, Steel Abs Corbett is left of out these discussions all too often. Don’t worry Jimbo, I still remember.

 

Ali is the obvious standout # 1 choice.

I could be wrong but I think I recall reading that Fat Willie Meehan could take it to the body - possibly primarily related to and best exemplified in his matches against Jack Dempsey.

Meehan was an intriguing fighter to say the least. He had an assortment of punches that he gave specific names to.

It also seems that he was a bit of slapper also - so the term “punch” may not fit in all instances .

 

He was hurt by Norton and Frazier to the body elsewhere too…. but he also made a show of taking body shots so it has an effect on people usually I don’t remember someone taking it to the body (expect when they’re showing off) I assume if it didn’t hurt it wasn’t in the right place.

 

You’ve been sort of making sense lately BE are you coming to the light? The other day you posted coherently about boxing. Please don’t let the dark take you again.

 

I look at the heavy lumber Joe Frazier was laying on him in the FOTC as well as George Foreman in the "Rumble in the Jungle" and I don't think any other fighter could have absorbed those kind of sledgehammer body shots. Muhammad Ali was almost supernatural in this regard!!

 

Yes, I can't remember if it was Jurgen Blin or Karl Mildenberger who introduced Ali to the sauerkraut, but it did become his favourite entree (and snack food). Two of his wives commented (privately ) about the sauerkraut burps.



Some boxing historians believe Ali actually used his ability to 'gasify' sauerkraut to discourage opponents from landing gut-shots.

It's still a matter of some controversy.