How did Ali beat Foreman when Foreman beat Norton and Frazier in 2 rounds and Ali barley beat them

Luck

 

Bad style matchup for Foreman, and good gameplan from Ali.

 

How does paper beat rock if rock beats scissors but scissors beats paper?

 

Norton never did well against big punchers, horribly stylistic match up for Frazier, and foreman gassed against Ali

 

This. Ali came prepared and also had Levi Forte in his camp, who went the distance with Foreman.

 

Styles makes fights. Ali did things Norton and Frazier didn't or couldn't.

Foreman's style relied on his size and strength to push, pull, opponents out of position where they couldn't set to throw and he could set them up for his own powerful shots. Ali took that away from him by effectively clinching and so couldn't be manhandled. Ali would use his hand speed to get off first but instead of then having Foremen push him around into positions where he was vulnerable he'd simply tie Foreman up. That combined with a strategy to tire Foreman by sitting on the ropes where he could more easily absorb the power of Foreman's shots allowed him to out last Foreman.

The guys that beat prime Foreman all looked to take away Foreman's ability to push them around. Ali clinched Foreman, Lyles also clinched Foreman at times but was also physically so big and strong it wasn't easy for Foreman to do so, when Foreman tried to post on him and push him off he'd often just have Lyle just keep pushing forward when smaller guys would of been stopped in their tracks. Even Young between all that movement, when Foreman did get in range and unload, immediately clinched Foreman, taking away Foreman ability to manhandle him into vulnerable positions.

One of the reasons why Foreman started adopting the cross arm guard more when he returned was I think to prevent guys clinching him as easily when he got in close as he could then easily use a forearm to lever opponents off him should they try.

 

Great analyses man!

 

Styles make fights.

Intelligence wins fights.

Foreman did not change his approach.

Ali did.

 

A determining factor was the location. Ali appeared to have a much better camp in Zaire than George did. Also George suffered an inch-long cut over his right eye in sparring just 8 days before the original date of the bout which was Sept 25th, George recieved 11 stitches and the date of the bout had to be pushed back to Oct 30th. I suspect that the cut affected George's preparation a great deal, and affected the outcome.

 

Styles match up and Ali had the durability and inner confidence to beat Foreman that Frazier and Norton didn't have. Ali at that time was more clever and more experienced than George and Ali was big crowd favorite in Zaire which helped.

Ali had tougher times against Joe and Ken because for one, he didn't have the bludgeoning power that George had.

 

Foreman also got outboxed by Ali. It wasn´t jut him wailing on Ali and then getting tired.
Ali was the first one to connect and it was a right hand 10 seconds into the opening round.

 

Styles make fights.

 

Greatness. He found what he needed.

That is what greats do.

 

Ali really didn't outbox George. Ali used the element of surprise, he used a very different strategy than he usually used. In the first round he came right at George and fought him toe to toe. Instead of his usual dancing and jabbing he loaded up and landed big shots on George. From the 2nd round on, it was a lot of rope a dope, and the extremely loose ropes of the Zaire ring were vital to his ability to do the rope a dope. But I wouldn't say Ali outboxed him. He didn't use his usual footwork and move laterally and jab from the outside.