Well thats a lot to live up to but he did what he promised. You look at all these fighters today that talk themselves up Ali style but what sets him apart is that he ran his mouth off then delivered.
What I always liked about Ali was that he fought his heart out every time he got into the ring. He may of had a "runner" style, but he gave his 100% and made some of the most exciting fights in boxing history, period. He could've easily potshotted and held his way to some real ugly UD's, but he always had that instinct to spice it up and finish his opponent - a real crowd pleaser.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6sYO3wkVbI4&NR=1 Early on in this clip, from the same page, Ali showed how agile and fleetfooted he still was at this stage. Impressive. As great as the fight against Foreman was it's too bad that it has given birth to the myth that Ali no longer could dance and had to trust to his ability to take a punch instead. Here he looks as fit and fast as in the 60's.
It's actually interesting because you can see that King, normally just a loud mouth punching one-liners, is trying to control his laughing. In an other press conference right before that fight, he'd tell King to shut up and talk some more. That was funny to see. Too bad no one else dared to do that ever since. :-(
When Ali was pretending to be hurt, I was laughing out loud. Training for the most important fight of his career, and the man is doing that. Legendary.
