Ali vs Wlad/Lewis/Vitali... how does he win?

Despite all of the debate around people claiming Wlad would beat Ali H2H based on the evidence of their careers, how they fight and who they beat, no one has ever given me a definitive fight strategy that Ali can employ to beat Wlad.

What do you think Ali does to beat Wlad? or Vitali? or Lewis? They would be the biggest ever fighters he's ever faced, rank up there with the biggest punchers as well as have fight games made to defeat smaller men, as Ali is to them.

He's going to use his 6'3 to out jab 6'7, 6'8 and 6'5 fighters respectively from a distance? Remember, Ali was always most effective from the outside, in his era, 6'3 was a "big" fighter, he didn't have much, if any experience fighting guys who were taller than him - let alone by 4-6 inches.

He's going to use his power to knock them out? Ali was never a knock out artist. He had respectable power but it was more so that he was able to break opponents down from the outside and rob them of their heart, more so than one punch power.

He's going to rope a dope them? Look at Foreman. In his prime, he was a slow moving heavyweight who although had ATG power, never really delivered it in anything other than telegraphed shots - problem was, blocking those telegraphed shots generally meant pain regardless.

He's going to outspeed them, get on the inside and work them? Ali was never an inside boxer. In the case of Lewis, you've got an enigma, a tall fighter who was as good on the inside as he was the outside when he committed to it.

In Vitali and Wlad, you've got 250ish pounds of muscle leaning down on you in a clinch the moment you get inside.

So.... how does Ali beat any of these three giant fighters? They're not the lumbering giants of Ali's era, all three of them have decent footwork and decent handspeed.

Lewis and Wlad have a jab that through reach alone, rivals the snap of Ali's jab.

Someone, anyone, give me a pathway to success that Ali would have against any of these fighters.

 

What a surprise, no one has an actual gameplan.

Uhm, maybe... cause there ain't one?

 

You need to believe then that Ali is light-years ahead of Chris Byrd of speed and slipperiness in order to believe that Vitali or Wladimir would have issues on the speed aspect.

With that speed, how is he going to utilise it? Is he constantly going to be able to slip inside, throw a punch? How is he going to deal with being clinched by such a bigger man?

Ali on the inside? Please, indicate a single fight where Ali fought an inside game. Don't point to Rope-a-Dope, he hardly threw anything, he waited for the dumb bear to punch himself out and then threw punches.

Infact, I believe Foreman has a greater shot at beating Lewis and the Klits than Ali did, solely due to STYLES MAKE FIGHTS.

Something everyone seems to forget when measuring Ali vs the giants of today.

 

The thing the majority of you just don't want to accept is that Ali's combination of height and speed was what made him so exceptional for his era.

He was the fastest fighter in an era where heavyweights were not that fast and if they were, they had very limited power.

Take a look down the list of fighters he faced in his prime, very few of them even got above 6'0 - he was constantly at a height and reach advantage, with a few cases like George Foreman being slightly taller than him.

You combine speed, height and a good jab and you've got yourself a hard fighter to beat - time and time again we've seen that, only in this case, Ali is giving up inches and inches of height to his opponent.

So again, how does Ali make his speed work for him? I have no doubt he'll slip a high number of punches from most of these guys, but what is he going to do once he's slipped them?

 

Because regardless of what people think, Ali's prime was the early 70s. He didn't have the victories against the named fighters until then, with the exception of Liston where there has been debate on the legitimacy of those fights.

When was his best performances against the HOF fighters that everyone points to as the reason for him being "The Greatest" ? They weren't the 60s.

His physical peak was the 60s, his actual peak was the 70s.