The first George Chuvalo fight is one of the ones missing when this question comes up. Ali combined his natural gifts such as speed with ring generalship and psychology. The way he'd sometimes stand and let Chuvalo pound his body,as if to say "No matter what you do George,you can't do a thing..."
I think Ali took Chuvalo a bit too lightly though. He wasn't in his best ever condition, although still in good enough condition to go a hard fought 15 rounds. I do think that one could point out to almost any fight Ali had from 1964 to 1967 as his best performance. He still had great performances left in him in the early 70s as well.
He sealed his greatness with the win against Foreman for me.Not at his peak physically but a great tactical fight .Foreman was the favourite and many people (myself included) feared for Ali's health that night Proved everybody wrong and effectively retired another great champion.
I would say Ali was Peak from '65 Patterson to '67 Folley. If i had to pick one performance, i'd say Terrell, because he was a high quality "Grade B+" boxer at his Peak, & Ali utterly dominated him over 15 rounds. This content is protected
williams/terrell - dont matter if it was williams - if it was bonavena, lyle, young, spinks or a shavers v that ali - they would be clearly outclassed.
Ali before the unknown substance got into his eye was in complete control of the fight. Liston could not even touch him. Even with substance in his eyes he was able to stay away from Liston in the fifth.
I'm going in a different direction, and thinking maybe versus Brian London. He was ubelievably quick, and accurate, plus he was really laying into his punches. I would never say Liston I, because in training Sonny was getting out-boxed by his sparring partners, and in Cassius' camp, he was getting rocked by Cody Jones. Too many variables in Liston I,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Sonny took the Money.