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

Utter ****ing tosh.

You haven't read the reasoning at all.

The reasoning of size is evident here due to Ali using his size advantage over most competitors to employ the jab game, optimizing the speed advantages he had over opposition.

The fact is, that Wlad is fast for a heavyweight, let alone a 6'7, 250lb heavyweight and negates the advantages Ali usually had over his opponent in terms of finding a home for his jab, removing one of the key weapons he had.

You combine the sum of all parts to find the answer.

Wlad's size, reach and power advantage, combined with the type of style that means he works in behind a tight guard, utilising his reach to jab at his opponent and setup the right hand, while maintaining good enough footwork and a guard to mean fighters don't generally leak many past his guard in todays age.

While Ali is no question the faster man, we saw in the fights where he fought a big man who came with a good skillset (so not the Terrell type fighter who was big, but clumsy) that he struggled.

Where was Ali's patented punching against George Foreman? Why did he realise in the first round that he couldn't just strike from distance and hope to win? Why did he employ Rope-a-Dope?

What about Norton who he went life and death with in two fights? These guys employed size, power and a good degree of technical skill.

Norton and Foreman are both no where near as technically adequate as Wlad is with boxing. Wlad can throw every shot in the book, has an extremely fast jab when compared to other heavyweights and that all comes in a package that is HUGE.

This is the same reason why Lewis was so hard to beat in his day. If it's JUST size, like Terrell, Carnera, Valuev, Julius Long - then it's easily negated but if the size of the fighter has no impact on their boxing skills, relative to other fighters of the day, then they become hard to beat.

Wlad has those boxing skills, the agile feetwork, the reflexes and ability to get his hands infront of shots, as Manny Steward has said, regardless of his size, he's a fast HW.

So... reviewing the argument yet again, that with a 9cm height difference and a 3cm reach advantage to Wlad, combined with the fact that he's the more powerful fighter and would be bigger in weight than anyone Ali faced in that day means that size DOES matter.

Size means Ali can't negate the power of Wlad by boxing him from the outside and looking to find a home to land the jab all day - because he would have to come forward to reach Wlad... where as Wlad would be able to move laterally and still reach Ali, that's the advantage of reach + height.

And as I've shown before, everyone expects that in a fight against Margarito or Williams, Floyd would be troubled by the size of the opponent and the fact that he would have to come past their punches to reach them.

Floyd is an inside boxer, he's got a beautiful shoulder roll technique amongst the greatest we've seen, the ability to counter punch and push his opponent into positions he wants.

We've never seen that from Ali because we never had to see it from Ali, he was in very few fights where he was fighting an uphill battle reaching his opponent.

Now, it comes down to the speed and style of Ali vs the size, strength and technique of Wlad.

Wlad negates Ali's jab, which was his main weapon. Ali didn't have the power required to knock Wlad out cleanly so it comes down to attrition, can he land enough on Wlad despite the size difference and the fact that Wlad would be as fast as any of the fighters he's faced previously despite that size?

My bet is no.

Anyone that says Wlad isn't a fast moving guy for his size and doesn't have reflexes - go review any other 6'6+ guy (including Lennox Lewis) and take a look at the difference in their agility.

Start reading and thinking, rather than thinking "OH BUT VALUEV LOST TO CHAGAEV THEREFORE SIZE IS NOTHING" - Valuev is 1/100th the boxer Wlad is.

 

Also, the argument of using Foreman as an example is wrong - because when have you ever seen Wlad stalk and chase his opponent the way Foreman did? Wlad boxes in the textbook, on the tip of your toes, jab-jab-jab-right, jab-jab-jab-right, jab-lefthook-right style.

He doesn't come forward and look to burrow in and he doesn't swing wild punches. He's a textbook fighter with great skills in a huge package, with none of the flaws that we generally see in fighters his size

I.e Valuev - who is so slow moving and so unco-ordinated that Chagaev got on the inside of him all day, using head bobbing, etc - notice when he tried it against Wlad? Wlad reset, moved back and went back to work, making Chagaev work towards him.

The key to beating a guy like Wlad is the same as it was to beat Lennox Lewis - get in past their guard and force them against the ropes to punish them while you can. Ali was NEVER a fighter like that.

 

Ali doesn't have a longer reach, again, you're arguing out of ****ing fantasy. Ali's reach was 201cm. Wlad's reach is 204cm.

This is why I don't respect any of you who simply say "OMG NO WAY WLAD WINS" - because you don't know the actual ****ing facts and you continue to point at the bad performances Wlad had without counting the bad performances Ali had.

This isn't "Ali at his absolute best vs Wlad at his absolute worst" - otherwise you'd see me reference the loss to Berbick and say "YEAH, ALI WAS SO GREAT! NOT!"

Ali is much shorter than Wlad, gives up a reach advantage and doesn't possess an inside fight game. His movement wasn't to get on the inside of his opponent, his movement was to stay on the outside, create angles and land.

Suddenly, you're all talking about Ali as if he used his movement to burrow in against fighters. He never freaking did. Stop living in a fantasy world.

 

You can't even ****ing read.