How close was Jimmy Young to being champion in the 70s?

It was an ugly fight .. many thought Young won and many felt Ali was flat out pathetically uninteresting .. I'm pretty sure the AP had Young winning big and the punch stat was heavily for Young ..

 

That many thought Young won isn't the same as the general opinion was that it was a robbery. Neither is the fact that everyone thought Ali put in a bad showing. Young sticking his head through the ropes certainly didn't impress anyone, either.

Even in close fights many will think that the loser deserved the decision. Beterbiev-Bivol I being a recent example.

I think those often get confused in these discussions, that's why I'm interested in what you base that on.

 

For what it's worth I scored the fight a few years ago and I scored it a draw.

I had Young winning more rounds overall 8 rounds to 7.

But Young got a point deducted for sticking his head out of the ropes multiple times which gave Ali a 2 point round and thus making it a draw for me.

 

Many thought Young won.Period. It's written all over the place ... the best Ali got was apologists saying Young stuck his head out of the ring .. most others wrote Ali was fat, disinterested, ineffective and was widely out-punched 22w to 113 , AP had it 69- 66 for Young , Ring Magazine labeled it a controversial decision with writer Lester Bromberg calling it a travesty and scoring it 11-4 for Young , Sports Illustrated called it a dreadful Ali performance .. Red Smith in the NY Times blistered Ali .... you get the point ..

 

Young has become more myth then reality as the years pass.
I thought Norton beat him and everybody screamed robbery.
The Ali fight was awful and it wasn't like Young did anything spectacular it was more of how out of shape Ali was.

 

These are exactly my sentiments.

Young was broken after the Norton robbery and developed out of ring vices. He was never quite the same again.

 

Well the myth beat a still functional Lyle twice, sent Foreman into retirement, out-punched Ali 2 to 1, fought Norton to a stand still ... not a bad myth .. n

 

He LOST to Norton. And both Ali and Young were incredibly awful in that fight.
He was a good defensive fighter that gets overrated. He wouldn't have beaten a Holmes. He wouldn't have beaten a prime Ali and he certainly wouldn't have beaten a Frazier.
The Ali vs Young fight is one of the WORST fights involving a title I have ever seen and it was both mens fault.

 

You think he lost to Norton but many thought he won. All thought it was extremely close and competitive. Ali looked horrible, not Young. Styles make fights .. He best Foreman but Frazier was twice crushed by him. The point is he was a terrific fighter who beat many top contenders and extended others. Capital's aside.

 

I never said he wasn't a good fighter I said he tends to be overrated as time goes by.
So your going to sit here and try and tell me that a PRIME Ali would not beat a Young?
Ali weighed in at 230lbs for Young the highest of his entire career and that had nothing to do with styles it had everything to do with Ali being in horrible shape.
And no mention of Young literally sticking his head outside the ropes SIX times? Doing it twice would be cause to get disqualified. He did it SIX times.
The Norton fight was close but it was no robbery by any stretch of the imagination i thought Norton was smart to concentrate on the body.

 

Muhammad's worst performance in the ring up to that point,Fergy.

If,in a hypothetical world,Young was given an immediate rematch by Ali,Muhammad would have had enough to beat Jimmy by a narrow decision as long as he trained hard for the fight. So,no,highly unlikely that Jimmy would have become world champ.

Thought provoking post as always,Fergy.

 

Young deserved to be champion more than Leon Spinks.

 

Yes, there were those who thought Young won. We know that. But you haven't even established they were in a majority, much that less it was widely considered a robbery.

Again, many will hava a close fight for the loser.

Btw, why are you an apologist when you point out that Young stuck his head out of the ropes? Never seen anything like that. There's a reason he eventually got a count for it.

 

Exactly. Some of the press scored it for Young. Others, like Milton Richman of the United Press and Bob Waters of Newsday, scored it for Ali. The conversation afterwards was mostly about how bad Ali had looked in winning, not about a scandalous decision.

 

By perhaps literally 1 round.