56 years ago today, Nov 14 1966, Muhammad Ali stops Cleveland Big Cat Williams.

You do realise literally no one has said Williams would have won this fight if he hadn't been shot? I suppose the red mist that descends whenever you see the man's name mentioned must make it hard to read people's posts.

 

This is the same guy who accuses me of being obsessed with Williams.

 

The greatest at his greatest, or near enough.
I know Williams had seen better days, but still.

 

Rich I appreciate it, your posts are no slouch either they're always top tier! My posts are the Williams to your Ali lol

 

Head to head nobody beats this guy imo. Unstoppable.

 

Ali at his peak or in his peak years. Williams beyond his.
But still, it's sometimes not that you beat the opponent, but how you beat them.
Williams was still a world class pro heavyweight Ali took him apart like he was a beginning novice amateur . Watching the fight, it wasn't that Williams had lost a lot from his injuries, it was where Ali was in his career.
In other words, maybe Williams survive a extra round or two, at his peak , but the results still would be the same.

 

Williams was definitely not world class at this point in his career despite his rating.

 

Mmmmm thanks for feeding me. That was yummy.

In other news it will be time for another Cleveland Williams post in a couple of hours. Lets get creative this time. Maybe "Who wins between Cleveland Williams and Jimmy Wilde prime for prime?" That way we can cover our daily quota of Williams posts and get a start on the hourly quota of dumbass mythical matchups. That way I can sit here and watch this forum get dumber by the second.

 

And Ali still gets acclaimed like a boxing God for beating up a gut-shot, half man...let anyone else fight an opponent who had been through what Williams experienced and you'd never hear the end of the carping, and criticism...as it should have been for Ali. You guys should save your praise and posthumous applause for the now degraded, often maligned and """overrated""" (all by the revisionists in this very forum)..Charles Sonny Liston. Liston fought a pre-gunshot, closer by far to his prime, actually dangerous Big Cat Cleveland Williams...and not just once,...but twice. Liston was authentically impressive and exhibited in both fights, the necessary balls and toughness (i.e., chin) to survive William's best firepower to immediately switch gears and devastate Big Cat in 3, then in 2 in the rematch. I'm sure that the adoring Ali-worshippers won't abandon their faith long enough to give Sonny more credit here and in doing so, deny the sacrament of the November 1966 fight.

 

Yes Ali looks good in here, but he was up against a guy that just had a bullet in his gut. I ranked Ali more on his wars with Frazier or Foreman in regards to being an ATG. am I going to bring up how amazing the Rock looked in blasted out Kid Matthews in regard to his status as an ATG??? It proves nothing. Yeah it looks good for a HL. but people will recall the wars with Walcott or Charles.