Who Does The Best Against Prime Ali? (Poll Included)

Frazier obviously. He can cut the ring vs Ali very well.


In second place, I would pick Wlad


I dislike Wlad will all my might but stylistically he is a hard match up for Ali. Strong jab, massive left hook, hard right hand. Assuming the ref will not allow too much leaning or clinching, I think Ali should out speed him but it’s a hard fight.

 

Someone who can bring fast, intelligent pressure, so, in order:

Frazier
Usyk
Tyson
Louis
Wlad
Lewis
Fury
Vitali
Holyfield
Marciano

All of these would be difficult for Ali. If singular exchanges represent a microcosm of the fight in its entirety, I believe Marciano achieves the least against Ali, but Rocky would be a more brutal and punishing match-up compared to Holyfield, in my opinion.

 

Ali, by his own admission, was vulnerable to infighters with a good left hook {1}. Holyfield, Marciano and Frazier fit this description the best (Tyson was a mid-range boxer, his inside game was non-existent beyond a few good elbows). So one of those three, especially Marciano and Frazier.

REFERENCES:
1.
Hauser, T. (2013). Muhammad Ali : his life and times / Thomas Hauser. (1st ed.). New York, NY: Open Road Integrated Media.

 

Wlad will always be the hardest stylistic matchup for Ali and the one he will have the least success against imo. Others might beat him like Usyk or Lewis but I think Wlad would do the best at completely shutting down Ali and not allowing him to have any success at all. Therefore I would so he would do the best against Ali.

 

I wouldn't go quite so far as saying Frazier doesn't have a tenth of Ali's physical resilience (the FOTC should dispel that notion straight away) but otherwise the above post is 100% spot on!

 

Where is Larry Holmes? I'm not sure he would beat prime Ali, but I think he would do better than most guys from this list

 

While I don’t believe he is the best fighter in the group I do think Wladimir Klitschko would have given Ali the hardest time. Under Manny Steward he developed an extremely difficult style to beat much like Pretty Boy Floyd did late in his career. I don’t know that I think Wlad would’ve won because I believe Ali would have stayed on the outside and just scored points with movement and the jab but it would’ve been a very tough fight.

 

Tyson, Wlad, Holmes.

 

Norton is not in this poll but I think he deserves a mention.

 

It would be a great swarmer and Marciano is the greatest swarmer on the list.

 

I dont think it would be frazier as when I saw FOTC was the rounds where Ali was moving was the rounds Frazier's pressure didnt do anything. so I picked Marciano

 

If we include every heavyweight in history, the answer to this question is 100% Norton.

 

Usyk and Tyson would be harder fights than Wlad and Lennox. I think Klitschkos success here is especially overrated, he wouldn't take Alis jab and angles away, he'd just keep himself in that boxing match and remain difficult to solve