Assume Ali was left-handed, and was permitted to continue as a southpaw without converting. All of his other management and other opportunities remain the same. Does lefty Ali perform better, worse, or about the same as the real Ali did?
Buggered if I know. You’re hurting my head with these hypotheticals Cross. Haha. Okay, based on probabilities, maybe better but hard to improve on the many successes Ali did achieve.
True. So is an active 68-70 Ali, a clean Evander Holyfield, a Jeffries who wants to give Johnson a title shot, and any number of other characters running around the Classic section.
He would be at least a little bit better due to how difficult it is to face an equally talented southpaw. He also would likely be less vulnerable to the right hook for obvious reasons.
A Bowe who was willing to fight Lewis, Amir Khan with a chin, Hearns willing to stick to a game plan, real life Jerry Quarry and Ron Lyle who don’t seem to exist on this forum, the last one was a joke, but yes, these ‘it’ fighters are nothing more than fictional characters, boxing can’t be a sport of ifs, the people who worked hard and were willing to take on the best and made the most out of their career should be the ones talked about, I know this thread is about Ali, but often there are these what ifs about people who lacked dedication or ducked fighters, that is down to them
He still relies on his chin much more then he should and snacks on different punches from new angles!
Rademacher Frazier, Suga Valuev, Saint Carnera, 155lbs Foster, 168lbs Rocky, Well managed Weaver, “Greb”, prime Djanders, Young Ortiz, Rooney Tyson, “Young” Foreman “What If” Ike, Tua but not Fat… Countless characters to choose from really there’s an entire lore book just waiting to be written and I’m only scratching the surface!
And yet we had to wait until today before @BitPlayerVesti unveiled Lineal Champion Stanley Poreda. Scratching the surface indeed. Who knows what cthonic monsters lie beneath the Fields We Know? Heavyweight Duran, White Jack Johnson, Upside-Down Levitating Sullivan (who only throws low blows), Filmed "Greb"...the brain trembles.
I think we can add, racist Klitschko brothers that draw the color line, Jim Thorpe (boxed from an early age), and Peter Jackson (the film maker, but he actually decided to be a boxer instead).
Well if he was exactly as he was skill and movement wise but a southpaw, then I would think he’d be even more of a nightmare than he actually was especially pre exile Ali.
