now you are doing it again, lying, changing what I say to fit your narrative. I understand he got some great wins way past his prime, at the end of the day you can only fight who’s about at the time, and in the sixties he did that . as well as in the seventies beat the best around, my point is and always was that don’t go measuring the Norton fights as a yardstick of Ali fighting prowess, like so many dim wits because Everybody and I mean EVERYBODY, knows that Ali’s head movement , reflexes, and speed around the ring also his ability to fight on his toes for most of a fight was well eroded in 1973 as opposed to the six count them SIX years previous in 66-67 that’s fact. ffs I don’t know why you would even try and argue against this point unless you have an agenda or know nothing about Ali’s career, I don’t know which it is but you have said nothing of any real substance to counter argue what I’m saying, in 66-67 Ali would UD Norton by a wide margin because of everything said in my previous posts. so I think we will have to agree to disagree and let facts speak for themselves lol.
You both are not accurate . Eddie Futch had Ali's number and trained4 of the 5 that beat Ali. A smart corner always give you a advantage.
He would've been heavyweight champ regardless of Ali, to me Mark, that pretty ****ing famous..The rest of your post I cant even quote, I wouldn't know where to start. You've upset me Mark
Promoted and immortalised by certain interest groups to push their 'political' objectives. Easier to create myths these days with the media power. Look at how far reaching the Ali myth is at this point. Ali is a 6'2 HW who got hit a lot and had minimal power and people think Klitschkos etc. would lose to him as opposed to KO'ing him cold. And just imagine would would happen to 'Smoking Joe'.
Prime Muhammad Ali was better than Prime Mike Tyson, this Ali, 1964-1967, never lost a fight and was banned from the ring because he was convicted of draft evasion in 1967. The Post Prime Ali, 1970-1981, is the one that suffered 5 defeats.
For some Ali has this mythical status and you can't say a bad thing about the man's career, but I'm far removed from that. Large part of the reason is that I got about the worst introduction to Ali as you could possibly imagine. After staying up at night to see undisputed champion Tyson demolish "lineal champion" Spinks in a single round, my father told me once again about that Ali was even better. For me it was hard to believe, but I had heard a lot about that guy that changed his name from one of the coolest in boxing history Cassius Clay, to frikin' Muhammad Ali. So time later there was a feature called something like "Muhammad Ali's greatest fights" on one of the sports channels, and that was my que to watch this marvel my father and so many others were boasting about. That went a lot different as I imagined, as with the very first fight I saw (don't know if it was the first in the series) I thought something like "Oh, that must be one of these fights he lost then, or maybe he comes back at the end to knock the dude out." Neither turned out to be true, because after a fight he clearly lost he was the one getting the decision from the judges. And more of these fights followed, with some being close affairs, some clear wins and a number clear losses that somehow he only suffered a couple on the cards, some even the audience booing the dicisions and one even causing a riot. For his trilogies against Norton and Frazier, I only had him winning once (Frazier II) and could maybe see a draw in the also 2nd Norton fight. And then there was the spoiling, grabbing, holding and hitting... When I then asked my father about those fights he told me that Ali always got the even rounds and most of the rounds he only closely lost. And the way he said that like that was some kind of special skill. For me it was just plain wrong and unfair, and a reason to have rooted against him (sound familiar?). Later on I saw his other fights and it turned him from a total fraud in my book to a very skilled and even great HW, but the sour taste never completely disappeared for me. A lot of his accomplishments are due to or on the back of downright robberies, that history now usually treats as legit wins. There's also a lot of nuance that I know now, that alters perception quite a bit in his favor, but also some that confirm my bias. The best HW ever? Most certainly not!
