Ali neglects the body?

Very true Swag - Ali did target the body that bit more vs Williams - no doubt that had something to do with (at least in part) Williams abdominal injury - all’s fair in love and war.

It’s probably reached mythical status as to how little Ali didn’t go to the body - there are several fights which show Ali throwing more than his usual fair share but not really that badly intended as someone stated earlier.

I downloaded Williams vs Terrell a little while back. I’ve seen it before but haven’t go to watching the download - which has been colourised. I’m gonna get to it shortly now.

 

It's really not fair how underrated that win is on the basis of Williams' condition. Yes Williams was shot, and yes Williams likely would've won if he was in his prime but solid contenders like Chuvalo and future number 1 contender (even if that ranking was absolute bogus) Foster struggled a lot more with an even more faded Williams than Ali did, were both rocked (Foster suffered a busted ear drum in the first bout, and was on the losing end of a slug fest in the rematch before ending matters), did not remotely dominate Williams, and despite being harder punchers than Ali, Foster took far longer to dispatch Williams, and didn't look nearly as impressive in doing so, while Chuvalo was forced to go the distance and take a hard fought UD.

 

I was happy when I finally got to see the Williams vs Chuvalo fight.

Sure, both were past prime but still a very tough duke out and a nice fight to uphold in favour of Williams’ resilience which has been overly maligned - just IMO.

Again, just IMO, Williams tagged Chuvalo with shots that were no less powerful than Foreman’s best when he faced Chuvalo.

Cleve simply didn’t have the stamina of old to keep it up - so he had to ration himself in terms of offence and to preserve his energies to withstand Chuvalo’s own offence.

If Williams’ chin was as fragile as some claim - an aged and post gunshot wound Williams wouldn’t have seen out the fight vs Chuvalo.

 

I agree. If Williams' chin was the china everyone here made it out to be, a prime Williams wouldn't have taken the punishment he did against Chuvalo, let alone a literally shot version.

This enhances Ali's performance in comparison imo. He had Williams up and down like a yoyo!

 

I didn't notice that for Muhammad Ali throughout his career, fighting from the inside was a strong point. I didn't notice that he landed one body punch in Zaire.

 

Yet he had better reflexes than all the rest, was faster and a very accurate puncher. He was also smarter than the rest....hence why he was the best. Ali was a game-changer.

 

He was what he was.

 

It's not underrated at all as footage is often played to showcase prime Ali's ability. In fact, it's one of the fights that people go on about the most despite the fact that Williams should have been nowhere near a title shot (and never deserved one at any other time anyway). Like BI (or Ring) said in 1964 before he was shot, he's made his name far more on Liston saying he's the hardest he'd been punched, rather than his actual record of beating top fighters.

 

Spot on mate, as per.

 

Ali was an ok fighter I suppose but he was no Lamar Clark. I mean, imagine what more he could have achieved if he had gone to the body more. And add to that if he had bone breaking KO power in either…or preferably both… hand/s like Clark.

He might…just might…have been as devastatingly good as Lamar was.

*I have since been reminded that Ali (Cassius Clay) had whooped Lamar Clark when he (Ali) was a 5 fight greenhorn. So this post is null and void, and the author (me) should get the hell of this forum right now and go back to work!

 

For every person who goes on about it, their's another who dismisses the performance based on Williams condition, saying any half assed contender would've done the same thing, which is quite obviously untrue as was proven later in his career.

As for Williams never deserving a shot at any other time and making his reputation off Liston's comments, both statements are untrue. Before he was shot, he was the number 2 contender, and had qualified for a WBA title match with Terrell (Granted it wasn't THE title but it was still a title shot that he earned). He'd already knocked out Terrell a year prior, and in the rematch in which he was injured, held him to an SD that many including myself scored for Williams. He'd also drawn with Machen the number 2 rated heavyweight. 2 judges scored the bout a draw, while the other had Williams as a clear winner.

 

I didn’t say Williams wasn’t ranked highly, more a question of “how” was he ranked so highly, after beating so few top 10 fighters- to build on that contemporary quote “his record doesn’t bear up to what Liston widely advertised” . Tony Tucker’s prototype in the “do nothing and stay ranked’ dept. Also, he may have done well against any “half assed contender” but any decent champ would have wiped him out in no time.