Young Cassius/Ali of the year he was dropped against Cooper,, Up against The Real Deal of his title winning match against Douglas? The decision is in your hands.
Cassius Clay of 1963 on points, would have taken this bout seriously, Angelo Dundee would have seen to that. Henry Cooper and Doug Jones are nowhere near The Real Deal Holyfield's caliber. Clay would have too much foot and hand speed as well as head games for Evander.
Hard to say if were talking about them for these fights we're there young and good but neither entered their prime. I'm leaning towards Ali by u.d. based off how slick fighters always gave holyfield the most hell. Then again you also have to think, could cooper really do anything holyfield cant?
I was going to say the same thing. I think he very well may have stopped Ali at this time. Any version of Ali from 1964-1975 beats 1990 Holyfield.
I think you can say that a 1990 Holyfield was a prime Holyfield. I don't think that's an unfair statement.
I’ll take Holyfield from 90, he was prime here Clay of 63 was not. I think he’d win a hard fought decision where he buzzes and maybe even drops Clay. As others have stated once Ali hits his own prime he beats Holyfield. He’s not been in tough enough at this point to deal with a Prime hungry rugged Real Deal.
Yeah I went with Evander. In 1990 he looked near perfect in the ring while Ali in 1963 was still unpolished. The Cooper and Jones fights showed he still had some stuff to work on
The only fighter Holyfield fought that had near the hand speed of Ali was M.Dokes. Dokes was not on the same ball field in foot speed .Dokes gave Holyfield hell up too the time Holyfield finally caught and stopped him. Dokes was past prime .I love Holyfield, saw damn near every fight was in. But I can't pick him over even this version of Ali. Just the wrong style and Ali's hand and foot speed. Holyfield never had to chase a opponent at heavyweight. They were typically their to be hit. A well past prime Holmes was able to hold his own against Holyfield by fighting behind his jab and fighting smartly. Ali wouldn't come into this fight clowning. Holyfield would be a serious threat. I see the nervous energy Ali from the 1st Liston fight opposed to the clowning Ali of the Cooper fight. Ali by dec .
You always got the impression with Ali that in certain bouts he was just going through the motions and ticking over in idle. Going by the Cooper bout you would pick Holyfield every time but I do believe Ali would have been switched on for this bout.
No disrespect to Cooper but Ali took him very lightly imo first time. He won't against Holyfield, he'll be determined and not Larking around, at least not to much.