Your favorite Muhammad Ali fights

Williams/Frazier I tossup

 

Liston and the Thrilla are my personal favorites.

Next, about even, FOTC and Quarry II.

Foreman third. Love the history, feel it every time I watch, but find all but 3 rounds rather boring.

 

The whole Frazier trilogy.

People need to STFU about the middle one being boring.

 

Ohhh I got you. I was actually lucky enough to have watched a few Ali docs before I saw this fight. So for me, the fight did have "build up" :bbb

 

Agreed. Even in the 2nd fight they land some cringe-worthy shots on each other

 

:good

Plus, it's a display of both of their skill in the same ring at the same time. How are people so underwhelmed? :?

 

IMO Ali was the greatest HW of ALL-time...
But kinda hard to pick out his greatest performance(s)?
London? Come on...based on a skills level, is this impressive? He beat Brian easier than I could jump over my back fence and kick my 70+ year old neighbor's ass!
Williams? Over the hill with a bullet in him...
Terrell? Given their styles, no way Ernie would have ANY chance...
He struggled against Norton anytime they fought...
Frazier fights were great...in descending order, #1 the best. #2 flew under the radar but was an excellent scrap...#3? In retrospect overrated, insofar as we were looking at two HOF'ers that were well past their prime and the excitement came from watching two, over the hill, warriors.
Never gave Foreman a rematch...IMO any of his fights past this one don't even belong in a discussion...
I simply think that his pre-exile fights were Ali against folks that didn't belong in the same ring with him and his comeback fights showed his brilliance but, after the Foreman scrap, were, in retrospect, either close bouts (Norton, Young, etc..) or bum of the month jokes to keep his title.
Obviously I still don't have the "Ali-aura"...
BUT!....the Ali from the summer of 67 to the summer of 70 (which we, unfortunately never saw) would have been the all-time great HW wrecking machine...

 

And, ironically, its the only fight of the series that isnt an all out war. They each fought the type of fight they were famous for fighting(Though Ali's spoiler tactics neutralized some of Fraziers pressure.)

1 and 3 are two great heavyweights trying to brain eachother, there is actually a much, much higher level of skill involved in how 2 played out.

 

Frazier III
Foreman
Williams
Liston I
Terrell
Frazier I
Frazier II
Quarry II
Chuvalo I & II
Folley
Foster
Ellis
Norton II
Shavers

I enjoy watching all those fights in full.

 

Ali-Frazier III is the best fight in HW history.

Ps. I agree with IB... Ali-Frazier`s 2nd fight was a very good fight, not boring at all, who starts these fkd up myths ? :huh

 

Even though the first Leon Spinks fight was referenced in a negative manner,it was actually a very exciting fight.Leon set a hell of a pace from the start and Ali made a strong comeback towards the end and it made for a pretty spectacular fight.Perhaps not as good as Holmes and Norton,but an exciting fight nevertheless.


But besides that,I really don't really care to watch any of Ali's post-layoff fights,to be honest.If I've seen it once,then that is more than enough.When you've watched how physically gifted he was during his peak,it's a major letdown to watch a diminished version attempting to move around the ring.Very little fluidity in his lateral movement at that point,and not even a fraction of the foot speed that he had in the 60's.

 

I agree with you to a point. Thrilla for me is just fun because its a great fight and its my most powerful childhood big fight memory. I was old enough to be coherent for that long a fight and had begun to box so I understood what I was watching a bit.

One of the things I love about watching post-exile Ali though is watching the gears in his mind turn. He was utterly brilliant in his strategy and generalship, and we know all his tricks because he's now an item of history, but looking back and watching him invent and implement these tactical strokes of genius always gives me goosebumps.

Its like watching a prime SRR do his thing and marveling at the craft. Watching brilliance, even in a poor fight with a faded champion, always gets me riled up. Part of my I loved watching the BHop-Pascal fights so much.

 

I confess I think the second Frazier fight suffers badly by comparison to the 1st and 3rd but I think its still an intetesting fight and a smart performance and I've watched it at least four or five times.