What if Frazier beat Ali in the 3rd fight

Ali would’ve gone down as greater, but Frazier would be seen as a H2H conqueror of Ali due to one of them ‘styles make fights’ scenarios, which people already use for the Ali vs Frazier competitiveness, but only due to Frazier giving Ali hell, not due to him being his overall conqueror.

 

I don't think it would mean much both were pretty much done at that point don't think a win there adds much to anyone's legacy tbh

 

I think Ali would be rated a bit lower and Frazier a bit higher but Ali would be still seen as the GOAT.

 

Maybe on this forum it might make more people say Louis was better than Ali though?

 

They already do lol

 

Yeah but it's still a minority compared to the other way round.

 

Because Ali has more nostalgia and myth behind him especially today

 

There's that debate sure. But I think if Ali lost to Frazier it could be enough to flip those who have Ali at 1 and Louis at 2 by a close margin which is a lot to flip it the other way.

 

I feel like people excuse Ali’s loses more so then any other fighter so they'd probably do the same with this fight

 

Perhaps with people say it wasn't a prime Ali they beat. But people have used Ali's losses against Norton so it might be the case here also if he lost 2/3 to Frazier.

 

Many people would probably say that the ‘what’s my name?’ or the Cleveland Williams version of Ali would’ve beaten Frazier and Ali would probably still be viewed as the greatest in terms of his resume.

Frazier would somewhere within the top 5 definitely, maybe top 3.

 

Foremans case to be GOAT would be stronger and Alis weaker. But Frazier can't be the GOAT because of the Foreman losses and his lack of longevity neither of which I presume Frazier beating Ali would change. It would mainly effect other fighters.

Besides Frazier taking Alis belt nothing changes for Frazier because all Frazier needed to do to win that fight was sit on his chair another 10 seconds. We're changing an L to a W but nothing about Fraziers career would fundamentally change. Same would be true if Norton or Jimmy Young got the nod against Ali. If Fraziers champ again he probably won't be for long. If he ducks Foreman or Foreman crashes out I don't think hes beating Norton, Jimmy Young and Lyle. And if he does beat them people already rank him above them anyway without fighting them. He'd be more solifying a status he already has in our timeline.

Maybe P4P at a certain angle you can look at Frazier as Langford and Foreman as Fraziers Fulton. But Langford has nearly 10x as many fights and almost all the HW longevity records. A crazy stat is that Langford fought more rounds than Ali, Foreman, Frazier, Norton, Lyle and Usyk combined.