No doubt he could - but the point made is that with a bit of the bad refereeing that say Ruddock faced against Tyson or Lewis did against McCall the ref could have waved him unfit to continue. Watch Tyson ruddock 1 - Ruddock isnt knocked down, he's just hit by a combination, he is not as hurt as Ali...but he ref stops the fight. If that was Sven ottke knocking down Ali in Germany, with Sven suffering a bad cut that fight would have been stopped there and then..
very good point. totaly agree, it would not make it right but if a ref wanted to do so he could have. i think ali walked to his corner without knowing the bell went anyway, much in the way patterson did when decked by johansson. ali was in no position to dispute anything at that moment because he WAS that far gone. i just think something special was always going to save him, be it a bell, a fair minded ref, smelling salts, a torn glove what ever. there was something in the air that night..
out on his feet. completely. british tv cut out for a bit which is possibly why the 1million hours of recovering time myth surfaced.
Ha ha! Admittabley a feeble offering, but i dont think he was hurt the way some people think and cant think of any other reason for him to get up of his stool.
Looking at it again i recalled Ali being on much wobblier knees walking back to the corner but he does get up fairly easily and walks back to the corner in a dazed but not a bad fashion. Looking at that even if the knockdown had happened early or mid round i would still back Ali to have been able to survive and then pile it on for a similar finish in the next round
Ali indeed got up, but with nothing but heart and instinct. He was totally out of it and people who try to say he was fine or that it was flash knockdown are being blinded by their respect for him. His eyes rolled back in his head. Yes he did get up and walk to the corner, but ask yourself this; Where did he think he was and where did he think he was going when he got right back up five seconds later and tried to walk away. He didn't know what was going on. He very likely could have been knocked out had that punch landed earlier in the round. Obviously that's a big hypothetical "if", but since there are people on here trying to say he wasn't really that hurt anyway, it's one worth pointing out.
I saw that mate, I also recall you mentioning you were going to call them a few years back. It's funny that this date can't be nailed down. Like I've mentioned previously, I have an article from around 1967 by Reggie Gutteridge which refers to smelling salts being banned in the UK (the article is nothing to do with that fight by the way).