If Ali had retired after the GFeorge Foreman fight..?

Well, he would have a good legacy still, but not the same, as he wouldn't of had wepner, frazier, bugner, and spinks on his resume.
Plus he wouldn't have been a 3 time heavyweight champ.

 

The only thing he did after Zaire that improved his legacy was Manilla. In Manilla he won the series against his arch-nemesis, proved his heart and durability beyond any doubt and showed he could brawl with the best of them when he had to.

 

Yup, no one cares that he beat Wepner, Bugner and split fights with Spinks. 3x champ doesnt mean a great deal considering the circumstances.

 

Still the Greatest IMO.

 

No. But I find it quite impressive that he stayed competitive against the best of a good generation of HWs even as the pale version of his former self he was after Manilla. Ali's detractors decides to the see glass as half empty and knocks him for his close/controversial fights with Norton, Young and Shavers. But not many other HWs over 34 with so much wear and tear and with nothing more to really accomplish have done better against similar competition.

 

Ali would be poorer, but he would still be considered "The Greatest" by most today...in my opinion.

 

He would still have been the greatest of all time. He should definetly have retired after the thrilla in manilla if he had then maybe we'd have a fit healthy brilliant Ali walking amongst us right now

 

I think there'd be more arguments that he retired to duck rubber matches with Frazier and Norton and wanted to get out of the picture before Holmes, Bobick (at the time at least seemed good), Young, Lyle (especially after he almost beat Foreman), and Shavers could beat him.

I don't think his legacy overall would have changed much, as there is still argument over Young and Norton, even a bit with Frazier despite the TKO. Winning the lineal heavyweight title a third time is good, but the way he spectacularly won the title a second time (especially when compared to how Patterson became the first two-time champion) against Foreman easily trumps that accomplishment, in my opinion.

Even if he did have an unhealthy number of soft touches in his second title reign, I don't think anyone could fault the man for the frequency at which he fought, at least up to the Shavers fight. Winning the rematch with Spinks I guess might help him in terms of building a case for his adaptability (if you don't count Holmes and Berbick, he did beat every opponent he ever faced). And I guess going on helped Ali avoid a lot of the "What-Ifs?" that I posted above.

Of course his going on also raised the what if of "Would Ali be in much better health today if he had retired after Foreman?" Pretty sad to think about.

 

It would have been the greatest thing he could have done ... he would have went out on the highest note of his career. In addition, he would have taken thousands of few punches which very well may have altered his current condition . Ferdie has written time and again it was , in his opinion, the post Zaire punishment that pushed Ali over the edge. What ever money he made post Zaire was gone by the time he fought Holmes.

 

That just might be the truest sentence in boxing history.